Posted by Teadie Becker on 6/19/2013 3:30:00 PM
My name is Nekoro Gomes and I am a 29-year-old alumni of the Rochester City School District, specifically, Public School 37 in the 19th Ward, Frank Fowler Dow #52 School, Frederick Douglass Middle School and East High School, where I graduated as part of the National Honor Society, and 11th in my graduating High School Class.
Today, I am the Community Engagement Manager for City Limits, a New York City-based non-profit that strengthens community engagement on civic, economic, and social justice issues by providing weekly news and information on policies affecting the urban agenda. Many of the issues that I advocate for and promote on a weekly basis, related to educational opportunity, and the importance of civic involvement and engagement, I developed as a student in the Rochester City School District. The thing I appreciated the most as a product of the school system in Rochester was the sense of community and involvement that I had there, not just from my teachers, but my coaches and fellow students as well. Things were not always perfect, to be sure. Many of my male peers in the school system had to grow up too fast, and unfortunately, I've heard of a couple friends who I played soccer with or whose company I enjoyed in high school being lost too soon in life.
