Montview by Brooklyn

Montview by Brooklyn - January 2024 Scholarship Essay

I strongly believe in the idea that you have to be the change you want to see in the world , or more specifically in your community. If nobody ever takes initiative to fix the things that are unjust then we will never see growth in our society. Because of these beliefs I have dedicated myself to find a way to contribute to this and I did. I attended DSST Stapleton for middle school and while there I learned that our school was named after Ben Stapleton. Ben Stapleton is the former mayor of Denver and was also a KKK member .I took it on as my job to get rid of this negative stigma behind my school's name. With me being an african american I believed that people like me deserved to feel safe here so i wanted to take action. I wrote an essay which received a lot of attention. The attention continued to grow and grow until it became an actual conversation. My essay had gained so much attention that it opened up the idea for the school's name to be changed. The name change was a far from easy process.
First I was doing 9 news interviews which then turned into radio talk show interviews. Then from there my campaign was gaining national attention so I was then interviewed and featured in a New York Times article. Later on a local teacher then quoted me in a book she wrote called I Wish For Change by Kyle Schwartz. After months of hard work I was able to present my idea to the school board and after multiple meetings they finally agreed to my idea. We then came up with the name DSST : Montview and less than a year later it was changed. About a year after the school name was changed, the neighborhood decided to support the school and also change its name from Stapleton. This by far has been my best contribution to my community.To know I was fundamental in something that significantly meant a lot to me because I had never imagined I had the power to get an entire school changed which then led to a community change also.