2004

NATALIE OSUNA

Student

kIPP SCHOOLS

Two months after I started at KIPP Los Angeles College Preparatory as a fifth-grader, I was called to the principal’s office. At first I was terrified. I thought I must be in trouble, even though I was the kind of kid who never did anything wrong. It turned out they thought I should skip one grade, or even two. I soon switched to wearing the blue uniform of the sixth grade. I remember that first day coming back to school in my new uniform and how proud I felt.

There are quotes painted on the walls all across KIPP L.A. Prep. The one that always resonated with me is from Muhammad Ali: “I am the greatest—I said that even before I knew I was.” Growing up in a low-income neighborhood like Boyle Heights, there’s a sense that life is going to be tough, and you’ll have to work ten times as hard as someone coming from a place of privilege just to get to the same place. To believe in your own greatness before actually achieving it, that was a new perspective for me, and without KIPP I’m not sure I would’ve figured that out. I’m grateful every day for my old school: my teachers, my principal, my friends, and all the people who made the school possible, like The Broad Foundation.

When it came time for college, I chose MIT, where I’m now a freshman studying architecture. I want to be an architect because I love art and math—two passions that started at KIPP—and because I want to help transform what is, right now, a male-dominated field. I love it here at MIT, but it’s also the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. MIT, like KIPP, shares the expectation that everyone is capable of doing amazing things, so every day we’re provided with ridiculous challenges. I still hang on to the lesson I learned at KIPP; I have to believe I can succeed—even before it happens.