Graduated Student Profile
Brandon Smith
Brandon “Big B” Smith, is a natural-born leader, but it took the influence of P.A.R.K. to convince him of that. “When my mother made me come to P.A.R.K., I was an out-of-control pre-teen. I didn’t listen. I had a bad attitude towards everything,” Smith said. “P.A.R.K. changed me. Keith Jackson and Kareem Moody have been an inspiration to me. They convinced me I could be a leader for younger students.
Brandon’s mother was concerned about the time her son was spending alone in their neighborhood after school while she was at work. She enrolled him in P.A.R.K. And while he didn’t want to be there at first, Smith will tell anyone who will listen that it’s the best thing that ever happened to him. “When I first started at P.A.R.K., I was an outdoors boy. Now I have seen how people (in the neighborhood) act. P.A.R.K. had changed my world to make it better,” Smith declared. “I’m glad my mom made me go.”
Kareem Moody is convinced that the turning point in Smith’s life was in the tenth grade. Brandon came to Moody in tears and bared his soul. As a large young man, Smith explained that everyone thought he should play football, but that wasn’t what he wanted to do. When he stopped going to practice, he was labeled a quitter, and he felt he had no safe place to go. Understanding his concerns, helped the staff to channel Smith’s energy in the right direction. Melanie Jackson, P.A.R.K’s Community Outreach Coordinator described Smith as a, “….gentle giant that all the students looked up to. If “Big B” told them to move, they moved! They respected him because of the type of person he was.”
A freshman at Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana, Smith is a fun-loving young man who loves hip-hop dancing. At P.A.R.K. he could usually be found entertaining others as well as witnessing to the younger students about the positive effect P.A.R.K. had on his life. One of those influences was raising his GPA form a 1.9 when he entered the program, to the 2.8 he had when he graduated form the program. Smith is pursuing a degree in computer technology. “I felt like P.A.R.K. was and still is my family,” he said. The feeling was mutual.” The other students loved him,” Moody commented. “He was a pillar.”