Jakylah Lawrence was recently selected out of students in the Greenwood School District to attend the Ambassador Leadership Summit at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
The incoming ninth-grader at Greenwood High School had a few locations to select from — all at top colleges, such as Harvard University.
“When my daughter first brought me the letter, we looked it over and she was happy to have Harvard as one of the schools on the list,” said Jakylah’s mother, Menasha Chandler.
The summit at Johns Hopkins, however, was the only one that focused on medicine and health care.
“It did not take us long to make a choice,” said Chandler.
Ambassador Leaders are student leaders who are recognized by their teachers, parents and peers as someone who possesses leadership potential and cares about his or her community.
At the Ambassador Leadership Summits, students come together to collaborate and get equipped with new knowledge and tools to take their leadership to the next level.
With students coming from as many as 140 countries, the summits are a melting pot of cultures and ideas, providing new global perspectives for the challenges and opportunities this generation will face and how each of them can make a difference.
At Johns Hopkins, Jakylah participated in hands-curriculum and gained access to highly regarded medical professionals at state-of-the-art research facilities.
During the more than weeklong summit, Jakylah had the opportunity to work on the Da Vinci Surgical System robot, learned how to stitch wounds and became CPR certified.
“She has been very adamant about becoming a pediatrician, but since this trip has changed the school in which she wants to attend,” said Chandler, whose daughter now wants to attend Johns Hopkins.
Jakylah, 14, is a straight-A student who works hard and enjoys meeting new challenges in the classroom.
Jakylah is the daughter of Antonio and Menasha Chandler of Greenwood. She is the granddaughter of Edward and Ethel King and Lula Moore, all from Greenwood.
