We asked some of the brightest folks from within the community to reflect back on their days in school and to share with us a story of when they learned a particularly important or impactful lesson. We’ve shared highlights below.

Erica Gargol

I was first introduced to investing many years ago when my grandmother gave each of her 11 grandchildren a high school graduation present in the form of money to invest. We were instructed to invest in a stock we had researched and were personally interested in. My Grandmother and I established a joint account and purchased the stock I chose with the funds gifted. Every year around the holiday season I would converse with my cousins and inquire about the performance of their chosen stock. Read more>>

Jamilah Mahone

Well for me the biggest impact from school is when I dropped out of high school . Although prior to dropping out I made a promise to myself I would still finish my education and make something of myself it was definitely a life changer and I found out QUICK life was not as simple as I thought and dropping out and getting my G.E.D didn’t make things impossible but definitely made it harder than life needed to be . If I didn’t take anything from it I now know education is the key to any and everything and to appreciate free and paid for knowledge . Read more>>

Lisa Crawford-Thomas

I grew up with three siblings, two sisters and a brother. I was the oldest and I always felt like I didnt’ fit in. My siblings all looked like cherubs, One of my sisters has dimples you can swim in and the other has exotic features with long beautiful hair. My brother is the youngest and was always handsome. I always felt like the ugly duckling, because I had none of those attributes and no one ever said that I was cute or pretty. We lived at the bottom of a steep hill, which was major fun for all of the neighborhood kids. Read more>>

Derrick Payne

Howard University is a huge part of my formation as a man with integrity who appreciates his gifts and talents and continually puts them into the Universe for the betterment of others. I learned humility; i gained a sense of direction and purpose- as a first generation college student I had very vague ideas about the person who i would eventually become, or how higher education fit into my future, especially majoring in Social Sciences! Read more>>

Sanika Nandpure, Garry Gong and Satvik Garimella

Throughout my middle school and junior high school career, I have found that the most popular way to organize the curriculum involves a never-ending cycle of learning lessons, doing homework, and taking unit tests. Although this certainly teaches students the material for the short-term, between all the assignments and due dates, there is rarely any time left for critical thinking and curiosity. This led me to think: isn’t creating knowledgeable human beings who can think for themselves the whole point of education? The sheer lack of outlets for academic creativity and curiosity disappointed me. Read more>>