An Education

High school and our experiences there often leave lifelong memories. Or scars. Imagine navigating those formative and frequently frustrating years while bearing an extraordinary burden — illness, disability, poverty, homelessness, parental abandonment or death, for example. The graduating seniors featured herein have endured a lifetime’s worth of adversity in their 18 years. In spite of, or possibly partly because of these challenges, they have managed to shine.

MEET TOMORROW’S LEADERS.

Mario Ramirez: Just dance

Woodrow Wilson High School senior Mario Ramirez never thought he’d be a dancer, and he definitely never predicted he would attend the University of Texas at Austin to study dance.

“I am terrified,” he admits with a laugh. “I wasn’t even planning to go to college, but I’m going because of dance. It’s so amazing how dance has helped me personally.”

And it all started as an accident.

“I wanted athletics [at Alex W. Spence Talented and Gifted Academy],” he explains, “but they messed up my schedule, and I had dance class instead.”