Meet Raquan Pride-Green Jr.

Q&A With Raquan Pride-Green Jr. ITC Class of 2021

Raquan Pride-Green | raquanspg@therisemedia.net

Raquan Pride-Green Jr. is a 17-year-old high school senior who lives on the south side of Syracuse, NY. He currently attends the Institute of Technology Central High School where he plays football and runs track. His academic area of focus is Automotive Technology. He will graduate in June with a Career Technical Education (CTE) certification in Automotive Technology, which will allow him to start working in the auto industry immediately after graduation. Raquan currently works part time at a grocery store. He has a younger brother who is a fourth grader at an SCSD school and both of his parents are SCSD graduates from Corcoran High School.

Q. What's it like being a senior during a pandemic?

A. The joy of being a senior was taken away by COVID-19 because we have not been able to do all of the things that you look forward to happening during your senior year when you enter high school as a freshman. Special rewards have been taken away such as getting a senior t-shirt, creating memories for the yearbook, the senior trip, and the prom is still up in the air.

Q. What do u miss most about school prior to COVID-19?

A. Being in the classroom with my friends, in the hallways with my teammates, interactions with my teachers to hand them physical assignments, football and track.

Q. What are you happy to see removed from your day-to-day schedule due to COVID-19?

A. I am happy about not having to wake up every day at six in the morning to get ready for school.

Q. What's next after Graduation (What colleges have you applied to and why?)

A. I have applied and got accepted into Alfred University, Niagara University, and Neumont College of Computer Science in Salt Lake City, Utah. Within the last month I have applied to Syracuse University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Howard University.

I have applied to Syracuse University because I have lived very close to SU most of my life, I have family that went there (father and two uncles), the campus is nice, I am kind of familiar with it, and my mother wants me to go there because it is a great school that is close. I applied to Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) because they have a connection with my school, as a technical school they have a lot of computer engineering, computer science, computer software opportunities, and a program called CO-ED, where I will get to work with people in the field and get paid for it. Howard because it’s an HBCU (Historically Black College) and I’ve been on a couple of Black College tours but I’ve never really gotten that full experience. Up until I was in the 7th grade I didn’t know what an HBCU was, and to be at a school where everybody looks like me would probably be a fun and safe environment. My father wants me to go to Howard because there is no better time to go than now being that Vice President Elect, Kamala Harris, is the first woman and first black woman to be elected as Vice President, and she is a Howard Alumni.

My father recently connected me with the On Point For College program because he is adamant that every college student needs all of the support that they can get. He believes that it is better to have support and not need it than to need support and not have it.

Q. If you could get a do-over for your senior year under ideal circumstances would you take it?

A. Absolutely, because nothing would compare to actually being at school with all of my friends and teammates.

Q. Has COVID-19 changed your views on life, if so, how?

A. I would say it has because I am starting to see that there are a lot of people who don’t trust science and that is kind of alarming, and it shows how divided we are on things that we shouldn’t be divided on. It's crazy.

Q.What is the biggest lesson you learned this year?

A. Love your people while they’re here because apparently anything can happen.

Q. What did you learn about yourself this year?

A. Pretty much no matter what comes my way, I’ll be able to adapt to it anytime. At first, the online was bit of a struggle but after the first two weeks, it was pretty easy.

Q. Who/What are you most thankful for?

A. My mom and my family without a doubt because they have been supporting me through these troubling times, especially with schoolwork because these are not ideal working conditions at all.

Q. How do you think the prom and graduation should be structured?

A. At my school, they did prom on zoom, which I think is pretty whack. I think by the spring/summer things might be a little more under control and we could have like a social distancing event like in the gym or somewhere with a lot of space or maybe even outdoors depending on the weather. For graduation, I think they handled it well last year when they had each student come up and take pictures with the principal and everybody else and just be on their way. I’d like to see that again.

Q. What will you remember most about your senior year?

A. How empty my school was on the first day that I actually went into the building.

Final Statement.

“2020 has been something else!”