Thomas Bruce of Fresno is the author of “WHY SHOULD WE CARE?!!!” one of the five most compelling stories submitted to the Right To Learn Campaign.
When Thomas Bruce entered his freshman year at Sunnyside High in Fresno, a senior named Will Smith took him under his wing, got him involved and showed him around the school.
One day Will and Thomas were spending some time together during lunch and Will was saying hello to students he knew at their school. At the end of lunch, Will explained that all the kids he met were great people, but only half of them were going to graduate.
This was a shocking realization to Thomas and encouraged him to put in more effort toward his own education.
Thanks to the mentoring Thomas received from Will, he became more active in his school, hoping to guide younger students to work harder in school. His experiences have clearly shown him that peer mentoring goes a long way.
“’Keep yourself in gear’ is what Will used to tell me,” Thomas said.
Thomas’ English teacher was also a tremendous influence on him, encouraging him to write more frequently.
He read the book Night and his teacher told him that he “had the ability to go much further,” causing him to work even harder in school.
Using himself as the example, Thomas believes that everyone is capable of learning and needs to be encouraged to do better.
“Everyone can learn, they just require different methods & different styles of teaching,” he said.
If he could, Thomas would want to change the image of schools in the minds of teenagers.
“People see it as a boring kind of place,” he said. “I want to change that.”
“School is a habit; I want to get students more passionate about it.”
Thomas loves spending time working on cars with his friends and family.
He is often busy with mock trial and is also part of his school’s swim team. His three brothers and five cats also keep him active.
He plans on becoming a lawyer in the future—not to defend companies, he notes, but to defend people.
Tags: dropout, Fresno, lawyer, learning, mentoring, mock trial, positive image of schools, Sunnyside High, swim team
