LAKEWOOD – In a search to escape what he said was the “monotonous, dull” scholastic life East Brunswick High School had to offer, Armand Rook Reyes, 17, transferred from that Middlesex County school to Lakewood High School as a freshman four years ago.
In his discovery for diversity, Armand, who is now a senior getting ready to graduate, said his high school experience has been enriched by the many different people with whom he became acquainted at Lakewood.
During his time at Lakewood, Armand became involved with PALS (Pupil Assisted Learning Services), a program that encompasses character education, community service, service learning and career exploration.
Through PALS,Armand discovered the American Conference on Diversity and he attended a retreat in July 2007 as a representative selected through Lakewood’s PALS/Rewind program.
As a result ofArmand’s performance at the 2007 retreat, he has been invited to come back this summer as a counselor on staff for Lead for Diversity, a six-day residential summer camp hosted by theAmerican Conference on Diversity.
TheAmerican Conference on Diversity is a coalition of like-minded organizations working across America to bring the values of diversity, inclusion and social justice to the nation’s communities, schools, workplaces and institutions, according to information provided by the organization’s Web site.
Armand and the rest of the counselors from participating schools will begin their adventure with Lead for Diversity on July 18 at the Pocono Environmental Education Center at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Pennsylvania.
According to Toni Ponti, who is the PALS coordinator and Rewind (Lakewood Youth Leadership) facilitator, “Armand is quite a unique student. He has been an integral part of the Lakewood action plan for school improvement, is involved on many different levels in the school community, and manages to work part time, while maintaining a commendable grade point average.”
Armand is the senior class president, ranks No. 10 in a graduating class of about 300 students and is a volunteer at Kimball Medical Center in Lakewood. He and his fellow Lakewood seniors will conclude their high school careers when graduation ceremonies are held June 20.
Armand credits his success to his mother and to his former Spanish teacher, Anette Maldonado, who is now the vice principal at Lakewood Middle School.
Speaking about Maldonado, Armand said, “She really inspired me. She put me in line after freshman year when I started to slack, more so in her class.”
He said Maldonado did this “all without saying a word, but rather with a disappointed mother gesture. From that point on, I worked hard in my academic studies to avoid ever getting that look and gesture again. Any accomplishments I have made, to this day, was partially motivated by the need to make Ms. Maldonado proud.”
Following his graduation from Lakewood, Armand will continue his education at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, where he plans to study engineering. He said his favorite subject is physics and one day he wants to own his own company with a corner office that overlooks a city.Armand loves to play basketball in his spare time and is a proud Knicks fan.