School wasn’t always smooth sailing for Jayveon Edmonds — the pandemic robbed him of his 8th grade graduation and the sense of community classrooms can bring.
But Edmonds, 18, made it work: The North Lawndale senior graduated as valedictorian at Al Raby School for Community and Environment on the West Side.
“I’m ready for it,” he said.
For the graduation — and for what’s next.
What’s next is college, but Edmonds wasn’t always certain that would be in his future. He didn’t like middle school. That was a virtual experience for him. And high school didn’t start out much better.
“School felt very restricting,” he said. “I’m an open-minded guy. I like to be free and creative. So, when I am limited to one way, it’s not fun for me.”
His teachers, he said, helped, especially his broadcast instructor, Roderick Haygood. Teaching wasn’t “just a job” for him.
“He really cared about his students. Sometimes we just needed to talk, so we talked. He helped me in certain situations he didn’t have to.”
That made all of the difference, Edmonds said.
Although he dislikes restrictions, that doesn’t mean Edmonds is not disciplined. The teen works four days a week through the Urban Roots work-study program at Garfield Park Conservatory. He’s a senior leader for the environmental justice program, and the first teen to be named one. It’s a job, he said, that helped him hone his public-speaking skills. Edmonds gives tours of the conservatory, and on Saturdays, clerks in the gift shop. As part of the job, too, he helped develop lesson plans and participated in the committee that hired his own boss, screening candidates and making calls.
Edmonds also works as a beekeeper a few hours a week, and has started his own hive. He helped the bees establish their new home and even harvested honey.
Sweet.
He also performs as a break dancer with The Microphone Mistfitz, a hip hop group his uncle, emcee D-Nick, also performs in.
At Raby, Edmonds also attended two classes at the University of Illinois Chicago, earning four college-credit hours in the process. Although his uncle D-Nick and his aunt, Seprina Redmond, encouraged him to follow his dreams, he said, it was UIC that made his future clear.
“It was dope,” he said. “I had great professors and that freedom was amazing.”
With all of that, he still managed to maintain a 3.8 GPA and the honor to lead his class.
His next stop is Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where the animal lover — who was once graced with the opportunity to feed a giraffe at Brookfield Zoo Chicago — will study zoology. As a Hope Chicago scholar, Edmonds’ tuition and fees are covered.
The bigness of it all has not yet sunk in, he said. He’s the first one on his side of the family to go to college. His parents are proud. So are his little sisters. Edmonds hesitates, though, when he talks about them.
“I don’t think they’ll realize what this means until I’m gone,” he said.
But his aunt was thrilled.
“She was jumping for joy,” he said. It helped that her daughter, his cousin, goes to Carbondale. That meant he’d have people there and would be safer.
His uncle, who graduated from DePaul University, had been the engine behind the decision.
“He told me he met his lifelong friends at college and said it would open a lot of doors for me,” Edmonds said.
He told Edmonds, too, to follow his dreams.
That was his advice for his graduating class, and it’s part of the shout out he gives to Shavez Rodgers, Deon Winters, Jarlon Rogers, Kaliyah Newsome, Robert, Allahashawn Redmond, Wisdom Cannon and Yuni — the fam he chose, the fam who chose him.
“Do what you want to do, not what someone else wants you to do,” he said he advises.
That’s what he did.
“And it’s dope,” he said.