Quick Facts
Home: Bronx, New York Favorite Color: Green Favorite Movie: White Chicks Favorite Singer: Jaci Velasquez Favorite TV Show: "America's Next Top Model" Favorite Food: sweet potatoes and plantains Favorite Subject: English Intended Major: English with a concentration in Creative Writing

"Faith is seeing the invisible, believing in the invincible, and receiving the impossible. "
-- Anonymous

Hello everybody, my name is Brunnell. I don't even know how begin. Um, so I write this entry on a Friday night in my bedroom on the computer, the day I was supposed to submit it. No, I am not a procrastinator! (even though I tend to leave things in the last minute) I have only been in school for a week and a day and I am already staying up at one in the morning on some days.

I attend a progressive school in Greenwich Village, New York City, which means that it places an emphasis on projects and experiential learning rather than exams. Also, it means that it doesn't offer any A.P./honor courses. It is what I call a private school with a public school culture. It has a very strong commitment to social justice and diversity including to the diversity of academic ability/talent. In other words, it such a great and small community of 170 students!

As you can see, I am very informed about my school. In fact, I am vice president of the student body, and the student government primarily deals with issues the students have with the administration and school policies. It is a mediator for both parties.

I am also a big fan of another school that I attended during my junior year: The Mountain School. It is a semester program in rural Vermont for high school juniors all over the country to learn and live in an organic farm. The Mountain School was one of my best semesters of my high school career.

I am in to a lot of things: student gov, jazz band (alto saxophonist), community service. However, it is at home when my passions flare up inside of me, when I am on the computer writing an essay for English class or creative piece for the literary magazine. I like to write things about the world, moments that I usually see in ordinary settings like in a subway.

Besides from what I have already mentioned from the above paragraphs, the next three phrases best describe me: TEAK fellow, Dominican, Christian. Alright, so I participate in the TEAK Fellowship, which makes me a TEAK fellow, and it is a program that recruits academically motivated students with economic disadvantages and help them attend top high schools in NYC and the Northeast. I learned about my school when I was applying in 8th grade and the Mountain School through TEAK.

Soy Dominicano and a black one, too (as you can see). My parents immigrated from the D.R. to NYC, and in fact, I have a father who doesn't speak English and isn't a U.S. citizen. I was born here in América. I also am the only boy with four younger sisters.

Finally but definitely not least important, I am Christian and I attend Dando Conocer a Cristo/Letting Christ Be Known Evangelical Church. LCBK, baby, representin'!!

Anyway, all want is to go to a good college. No, that's a lie. All I want is to go to Princeton even though right now it is a major reach for me. I know I can't put all my eggs in one basket and I won't. I promise. I would be setting a bad example. I am looking forward for next year when the workload dies down and I am not looking forward to my college letters. I will go into detail about my college list in my next entry.

I feel like I am ending this abruptly. Ok, bye!

Brunnell