When you talk to Randy Sams, it’s not hard to see why this Ballou High School senior was selected as the school’s “All-Star Student” for on-field recognition at this year’s DCPS Night at the Nationals game. Randy is attending Penn State University next year, a school he visited on a college tour with Ballou, but is actually starting college this summer to get ahead on credits. He’s not sure what he wants to do yet, but he’s considering computer engineering or international studies, a subject he discovered an interest in when he studied in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay last summer with DCPS Study Abroad. At Ballou, Randy has been in band for all four years, Chess Club for two years, and is also part of a group called MOST, which he describes as a men’s awareness group that encourages young men to “not fall to what society thinks men should be.” Outside of school, he tutors 2nd and 3rd graders at King Elementary School and Simon Elementary School, which he enjoys because he “gets to watch the younger generation grow.” He wants people to know that “Ballou is not what society portrays of us. We have grown a lot these past few years, and we are moving forward.” #DCPSGoesToCollege
