PROFILES

What made you decide to come to the University of Chicago?

I was in a summer program at Georgetown, and I told everyone I was from Chicago. A lot of the kids there asked me whether I was going to apply to the University of Chicago. I said I didn’t know. It’s funny, but a lot of people from Chicago don’t know the reputation of this university, and I was one of them. So I looked at the Web site and asked for information, started reading more about it and asking my college counselor about it. It was between Chicago and the University of Illinois—I didn’t want to go out of state. Talking to my family, it seemed like this would be the best opportunity for me because no one in my family had ever gone to such a prestigious school.

Were you concerned about your preparedness for Chicago?

Coming in, I was really scared because I didn’t know what to expect, and coming from a public school, I knew a lot of the kids here were from private high schools or boarding schools. Knowing the type of education I got, compared to what they had received, I was just wondering if I’d be able to compete with most of the kids here. That was my major concern.

Did you and your family have concerns about the cost of a private school?

Before I came here, I said I’m not taking out any loans, and they all laughed at me and said it costs $50,000—how do you expect not to take out any loans? And I said, that’s my goal, I do not want to have any loans. That was one thing I really had to consider before I came here, because if I’d gone to the University of Illinois, I wouldn’t have had to worry about that.

So the Odyssey program addressed a very specific concern for you. In what other ways does Odyssey help?

Odyssey really helps me a lot because I can save my money, and I don’t have to worry about paying back debt. Also, when I get money, I have to use some of it to help the other people in my family—help my mom, help my brother, and so on. And a lot of students like me have jobs. Every professor thinks their course is the only course you’re taking. Then, if at the same time, you have to devote a certain number of hours to work, it’s hard.

What about Odyssey’s influence on the University?

I think Odyssey will definitely have an impact in terms of diversity. Before I came here, I thought that everyone here were kids who had rich parents who could afford to pay $50,000 a year for them to go to school—not kids from inner-city schools, such as myself. So it gives the opportunity to kids like me to come here. I have two cousins who applied here, but because of the money they couldn’t come. It helps with not only racial diversity, but soci0economic diversity, too. I think that’s important, because I can learn certain things from kids who went to private schools, just like they learn things from me.

Do you have any thoughts for those considering a gift to the Odyssey Challenge?

I would say that the best investment you can make in yourself is in your education. If you can do that for someone else, that’s the greatest gift you can give to them. There’s nothing greater than that. It’s the opportunity to learn and do whatever you want to do with that knowledge. This is something you can give someone that’s going to follow them every step for the rest of their lives.

I remember working at graduation and looking at those graduates and thinking, my God, you made it. Everyone’s going to know that you graduated from the University of Chicago. Everything you went through—all the times you cried over your midterms, and so on—it’s done, and you made it. And for whoever helped make that possible, they know they had a big effect on those students, helping them make it to their professional lives. You help a student so that student can do something with their life to help other people. A lot of the kids who graduate from here go on to do really big things. It’s not like they just work an ordinary job or even just one job. If anything, the people who graduate from here have several jobs in their lifetimes, so just imagine all the people they’re affecting. It’s all because someone thought it was important enough to give to this program.