She was her parents’ first-born and they named her Queen. Queen Amarachi Nwoke. Were her mother still living, she would have watched Queen grow into a humble young woman possessing a steady radiance.
Queen’s mother died during the birth of her third child. Not long afterward, Queen’s father won a visa lottery and left their native Nigeria to pursue a livelihood in the United States. Queen was 13 when she joined him here and it is she who provides much of the care for her younger siblings, now numbering six.
“My typical day? I get up at five and I wake up my siblings. I get their breakfasts and then get them on the bus. My brother is handicapped — he is paralyzed on his right side and has brain damage — so I take the special bus with him to school. I’m off school at 2:30 and sometimes I stay after for college classes or extracurricular activities and my sister rides the bus home with my brother. When I get home, I do my homework and make dinner for them, and, yeah,” she pauses and offers a shy smile, “that is my day.”
“Queen is the most selfless person I have ever met,” says Meredith Barrow, Queen’s college adviser at Martin Luther King Jr. Early College High School in Green Valley Ranch. “She’s 17 and has been taking care of her siblings her whole life.”
I met Queen on Thursday. She’s a semifinalist for the Daniels Fund scholarship. This is the third year I’ve joined the interview teams and each year I tell myself, “I’m here as a volunteer and I’m not going to turn this experience into a column.”
Who am I fooling.
By kid three, I’m amazed. By kid six, I’m in love. By kid eight, I’m ready to stop strangers in the street and proclaim: We’re going to be OK.
Nothing I write today will affect the outcome. It’d be selfish to not share Queen, Thuyvan Tran, Anna Allen, Seth Smith, Alana Brown, Jonathan Piedrasanta, Paulina Leporowska and Jonathan Seals.
I should add that last week the Colorado Boys & Girls Clubs named its 12 Youth of the Year scholarship finalists, giving its top award to Elizabeth Velasquez of Greeley.
She said something that applies to all these young people: “The cards that I was dealt may not be the greatest, but they are mine and I have chosen to play them and win.”
In other words, the eight semifinalists I helped interview represent a fraction of the promise out there.
My interview partners this year were David Meggitt, manager of Colorado Children’s program for the Betty Ford Institute; and Pastor Ray Cook of Colorado Community Church in Aurora. By day’s end, we brim with the dreams of the young. To be a doctor, an engineer, a dermatologist, a lawyer, a physician’s assistant.
The students say: “I want to go to college because I will not be satisfied until my parents are rewarded for deciding to search for a better life.” And, “You can’t grow up without putting your eyes outside the box. If you don’t, you will always be contained.” And, “I had a choice: to be angry or to persevere. I chose to persevere.”
This year, more than 2,000 students from Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming applied for the scholarship, which picks up what family and other financial aid does not. That field was narrowed to 578 semifinalists, 260 of whom will win the award.
These are good students, and each knows adversity. Bill Daniels was looking for those who demonstrate ability, tenacity and an understanding that giving to others is a vital expression of our humanity.
The pastor, Meggitt and I did a little survey of our eight semifinalists. At least half were the children of first-generation immigrants. Nearly all have been raised by single mothers. Congratulations, then, to Thuyvan’s mother, who supports her family as a nail technician; to Seth’s mom, who works two jobs and who never stopped talking to him about college; to Alana’s mom, who has taught her that “even when the tough times come, you can weather the storm.”
What these young people share is a strong support system and formidable focus. They have a vision of themselves that persists beyond moment and circumstance. They have, too, a sense of perspective beyond their years.
“The most important things stay with you the rest of your life,” Queen tells us during her interview. “Hanging out with my friends, partying, whatever, that lasts an hour or two. Taking care of my brother and my family, that will last me the rest of my life.”
Tina Griego writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-2699 or tgriego@denverpost.com.
