Ask Tevin Brown if he’s going to college, and he’ll give a definitive response.
“Yeah, I know I’m going to college,” says Brown, almost insulted.
Like many black teenagers, the 16-year-old is a member of a one-parent household. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 53.3 percent of black children grow up in a single parent home, compared to the national average of 26.6 percent. However, Brown’s situation is a little different than most.
His father, a Mexican, was recently deported.
“I still get to talk to him. It isn’t like he’s disappeared,” Brown said, noting he plans to visit his father this summer.
In spite of hardships within his family, Brown perseveres in the classroom. He hopes to be the first person from his family to earn a college degree.
“No one in my family has ever been on the level I am now; it’s a big part of my motivation,” he explained.
A sophomore at Anderson High School, Brown is enrolled in several advanced placement (AP) classes. He has already started looking at potential colleges and thinking about what he would like to study.
“I was looking at architecture, but as I got older I’ve been looking more at engineering,” he said, pointing to chemical or space engineering as possibilities.
Brown says he scrupulously avoids drugs and other trouble.
“I don’t do nothing,” he said. “I go to school and I go to church — that’s about it.”
Some other black students used to make fun of Brown for his studious ways, but he says that has changed.
“They treat me with respect, like, ‘Ah, Tev, he’s smart. He’s going to go to college.’ Not like, ‘Ah, you’re a nerd.’”
Brown says a perception, one that he does not share, exists at AHS that white students look down on black students. He sees it as his responsibility to dispel such stereotypes. Brown says that he is the only black student in his AP classes, which can make it difficult to connect with other students.
Connecting with teachers can be challenging, too.
Brown recalls a time in the eighth grade when a teacher made him move to the front of the class because she thought he was misbehaving. Brown felt the punishment was undeserved and was a result of his race. Even back then, Brown persevered.
“By the end of the year I was her favorite student,” he said.
There are days, Brown admits, when he has to fight laziness to finish his homework. He says many male black students aren’t willing to put forth the effort.
“A lot of kids just don’t care, and that comes from their home,” he said.
Brown considers himself fortunate to have a family that pushes him to excel. He says he’s also been lucky to have teachers who recognized his ability and encouraged him to take challenging classes.
The 16-year-old isn’t waiting for college to look beyond Anderson and expand his academic career.
He’s trying to gain admission to the Indiana Academy, a two-year residential high school at Ball State University for gifted students from around the state.
Achieving admission to the academy won’t be easy. The school accepts only about 165 students a year. Brown notes that he’ll need a 1,500 score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test to be considered for admission.
It will be another in a long line of tests for the Anderson teen as he seeks to reach the destination he has charted.
Contact Sam Brattain: 640-4883, sam.brattain@heraldbulletin.com
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Tevin Brown, a sophomore at Anderson High School, works on precalculus homework during a tutoring program at First Church of the Nazarene. Brown said he likes the tutoring program not so much because he needs help but because the setting removes the distractions he has at home. Don Knight
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