Achieved Academic Success Through Self-Motivation
By Dan Murphy
The Roosevelt-Early College High School valedictorian and salutatorian for 2019 both had the support of their families, but achieved their academic greatness by pushing themselves to succeed and achieve.
Valedictorian Naomi Joyce will graduate with a 99.66 percent grade-point average. Naomi likes to march to the beat of a different drummer a bit, saying, “I don’t have favorites, but I’m very opinionated,” when asked who her favorite teachers were at Roosevelt-Early College. “I love science and biology, and I’m drawn toward the study of medicine,” she said. “Human biology is a precursor to the study of medicine.”
She singled out English teacher Mr. Meade saying he “treats you with respect and as an adult. The respect you give him, he gives you back,” said Naomi, who has taken 13 advanced placement and college level courses.
Extracurricular activities for Naomi include membership in the National Honor Society, National English Honor Society and National Spanish Honor Society, and the Multicultural Club. She is also an active member of the Actors Conservatory Theater, where she has performed for seven years since the sixth grade in several musicals.
Naomi said the college application and acceptance process was stressful. “It’s a juggling experience to get through it all,” she said. Naomi applied to 31 schools and was accept to 23, including Fordham, Iona, Manhattan, Marist, Marymount Manhattan, New York University, Pace, Penn State, Rochester Institute of Technology, Binghamton and USC.
“My first rejection, to Barnard College, made me cry,” she said. “And it was before my opening night for ACT. But it made me learn not to put all of your eggs in one basket, and the whole process has been a positive learning experience.”
Naomi will attend USC in the fall, with her two major choices falling between USC and NYU. “Even though I liked NYU, I didn’t like the fact that there was no campus and no school spirit,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to go to California, so it was meant to be.”
She will major in human biology and said she hopes to become a doctor someday. “Maybe an OBGYN,” she said. “That’s one interest, but it might change.”
Naomi thanked her family for being supportive. “They are simple people who didn’t know a lot about my studies,” she said. “But they helped push me to become self-motivated and helped me a long.”
She thanked Yonkers Parents in Education, as she was a YPIE Scholar in the ninth grade and a YPIE Fellow in the 11th grade. And the thing Naomi said she enjoyed most about Roosevelt was “the opportunities that it offers.”
Her advice to young students? “Start studying and preparing for college applications and standardized testing in advance,” she said.
Salutatorian Bhavya Gaur will graduate with a 98.6 percent GPA. Her favorite subjects are science and math, and she said she is enjoying pre-calculous this year because “it’s challenging.” She also said she enjoyed earth science class with Mr. Anthony Ortiz, because “he pushed me to do better.”
Bhavya has competed seven AP and college link courses. Her extra-curricular activities include serving as a junior docent at the Hudson River Museum, volunteering at the Yonkers Public Library and with the Yonkers Parks and Recreation Department. She also served as the National Honor Society vice president, Multicultural Club president, and played on the varsity soccer team. Her participation as a performer in the Drama Club was one of her highlights.
Bhavya and her family came to America, and Yonkers, from India for her sophomore year of high school. “My family wanted to come for a better job, and a better future for me and my brother,” she said. “I had to make up and catch up over three years with a packed academic schedule. In India, the focus is on academic success. Here you have more parts of your education and you need to have good time management.”
Bhavya applied to 21 colleges, including her dream school, NYU, where she got denied. She was placed on the waitlist for several colleges but was accepted to SUNY Stonybrook, where she will attend in the fall and major in bio-chemistry. Both Bhavya and Naomi received a large share of scholarships and financial aid to make attending college more affordable.
Both have been friends since the 10th grade, and Bhavya and Naomi have pushed each other to academic excellence, as both were competing in a friendly way to become valedictorian. Naomi’s older sister was the salutatorian at Roosevelt, and Naomi wanted to become valedictorian.
Bhavya thanked her parents, but said they “are not your typical Indian parents. They don’t have high expectations,” she said. “When my dad found out I was number two, he couldn’t believe it. My older brothers didn’t push themselves enough and I didn’t want that for me. So I pride myself on self-motivation and hard work, in rigorous courses.”
