About Me

My name is Martese Johnson, and I am an African American male at Kenwood Academy High School in Chicago, Illinois. I am a very outgoing, fun-loving teenager who loves going out, educating myself, and trying new things.  I am an honors student who began taking Freshman honors courses in the 8th grade at Kenwood. Today, I am a Junior at Kenwood who takes Senior honors and AP courses. I am in the top 20% of my class, and I recently received a semester report card that contained straight As. I have a 3.5 GPA, and it continues to increase every semester. My goal is to receive a full scholarship to the University of Texas, Austin, where I want to study Business Administration or Marketing Management. Aside from my various academic achievements, I am also very active in my community and in my school. I am a member of 3 groups that take part in community service (F.O.C.U.S. 'Fundamentally Organizing and Cultivating Urban Society', Men of Distinction, and the Kappa Leadership Institute-Chicago). In these groups I have done a huge amount of community service, which consisted of a myriad of things such as helping with Jazz Festivals for the community, book fairs for the children, tutoring elementary school students, feeding the homeless, having anti-violence conferences, and more. While maintaining outstanding grades and participating in community service, I have also taken part in leadership positions and sports at my school. I am the Junior Class Vice-President, I am the Vice-President of "Men of Distinction", and I even play varsity football and volleyball. My family is not very well off, so my aim is to work hard enough so that my mother does not have to take a dime out of her pocket for my college funds. I believe that I am doing plenty of things that will lead me to achieving this goal, but there's always room for improvement. This is partially why I am taking the opportunity to study abroad this summer. Not very many poor, African American males get a chance like this, so I'm taking full advantage of it. It will look great on my college applications, and it will definitely be the experience of a lifetime. I plan to do big things in the future, and this is just one more step that I'd be taking on a path to greatness. So once again, donate whatever you can, please.

Thank you very much.