Blake Johnson: From Springfield to Hull, England
A SUCCESS STORY, TOLD IN FOUR ACTS
Act 1: High school
Blake Johnson, 15 years old, for a number of reasons, moves away from home and starts supporting himself. Unlike anyone else in his family, he stays at Southeast High School in Springfield and gets his high school diploma—the first in his family to do so.
“I had a hard time focusing my last semester. I didn’t know or even believe that I was going to college. But I always thought, deep down inside, that I could make something of myself. I refused to live the typical life that most of the people around me had chosen. So with a lot of support from teachers, counselors, and administrators at my high school, I never gave up.”
Among the people at Southeast who helped him: his principal, Tammie Bolden, math teacher Stephanie Kincaid, college advisor Carolyn Blackwell, and Jobs for Illinois Graduates teacher Sue Haptonstahl.
Along the way Blake heard about UIS’ MSS program, the Midstate Student Support for teaching, directed by Dr. Loretta Meeks. The program gives qualified students a four-year scholarship. “I held on to that possibility,” Blake says. “That helped me stay encouraged and to graduate from high school with the highest possible grades.”
And all the while, he was on his own, supporting himself, meeting all his expenses for room, board, school, and spending money.
Act 2: College
Having secured one of MSS’ scholarships, Blake enters UIS, unheard of in his family. Dr. Meeks and her staff ease his transition into college, providing advice, encouragement, and information. Even so, it’s hard.
“There were people in my life who just couldn’t understand my choices. They had not attended college and could not understand what I was going through. That was probably the hardest part for me.”
Blake also struggles to meet his financial needs. The MSS scholarship pays for tuition, but only partially pays for student fees. On his own, he has to find money for books, food, housing, clothes, supplies, and much more. As for a computer, that tool so necessary to college students? That has to wait.
(At right, you can see Blake at the far right of the front row with children from St. Patrick's Freedom School and fellow members of UIS' Legacy Dance Team. Read more here.)
Blake meets his expenses by working four days a week at Wal-Mart and at the Springfield Urban League. The other three days, he attends classes, somehow holding his schedule together. Around all these commitments, as an AmeriCorps member, he also finds time to volunteer 300 hours during his freshman year.
During the following years, he continues working for the Springfield Urban League, mentoring and tutoring youth after school and during the summer months. “I also worked at United Cerebral Palsy with special needs children,” he says, “and at UIS as an orientation leader.”
And what has kept him going through all of this endeavor? Working with children, he says, especially in the Children Defense League’s Freedom School, an after-school program. The program, administered by the Springfield Urban League changes his life.
“Seeing how much the children look up to me, how much influence I have on them and they had on me, seeing the education system from the other side, this was the boost I needed to better myself so I could become a teacher for them. Working with them, along with the instruction and encouragement I was receiving at UIS, allowed me to see myself as a teacher. That is what keeps me going.”
Act 3: The University of Hull, Hull, England
In the fall of 2010, Blake wakes up each day in an apartment he shares with three other exchange students in Hull, England. With the generous support provided by three scholarships—from Peggy and Micah Bartlett, Jan and Gerry Droegkamp, and Leona Stanford Vollintine—Blake is able to spend a semester studying abroad.
He says, “Cheers!” to everyone back at UIS, recommends the fish and chips (“it tastes totally different than any fish and chips I have ever had in the States”), and shares this insight: “College students everywhere are basically the same, exploring who they are as individuals, striving to be great and have an amazing life.”
You can read more about Blake’s experiences at Hull and see pictures in his blog. We’ll close this act with this quote from his blog:
“This journey abroad, I feel, will pay off for the rest of my life. I am experiencing the Real World for real (for real! lol). Seeing the world and lives of other people, a different culture, different style, a different way of living is showing me how small I am on this earth, how insignificant challenges in life really are. Learning all of this is fun and exciting. Nothing can ever take away the knowledge I have gained thus far, and nothing can stop me from acquiring more.”
Act 4: The future
Blake, who is back at Uis now, has big dreams and is working very, very hard to make them happen, but he is the first to acknowledge that all along the way—from that apartment he moved into when he was fifteen to the apartment he now shares in Hull, England—he has received a lot of help.
He already has plans to give back in the future both through his teaching, but even more specifically through scholarships. “One would be for students who are in financial need,” he says, “so students will not have to work so many hours each week. I have also thought about providing a card to students that will help them purchase food and other personal expenses.”
The best thing, he says, will be getting to know his recipients and who they are becoming as an individual. If any of them are like Blake, that will be a pleasure indeed.