AURORA | Brandon Thomas paused in the middle of a sentence to casually greet in Korean a fellow Gateway High School student.
Thomas, 18, sat in a brightly colored plastic chair in school’s counseling center, an office the senior has gotten to know well during his four years at Gateway. It’s the place where Thomas discovered direction and purpose, where he started to connect with cultures from across the world. As a volunteer with Gateway’s English Language Development department, Thomas has made strong ties with the school’s international students.
That work has paid off in very personal ways for Thomas, who is bound for the University of Colorado Boulder in the fall. He’s connected with students and parents alike, making the transition to American life a bit easier for those just learning to speak English.
“It’s been one of the best, most fulfilling experiences of my life,” Thomas said, adding that he started volunteering with the department his sophomore year. “It’s astounding how much it really touched me.”
The work has also paid off in other equally impressive ways. As he enters his final weeks as a high school student, Thomas is fluent in Spanish, French and American Sign Language. He’s working on learning Korean, and making progress in Portuguese and Hebrew. His studies have also yielded an important reward: after the fall’s grueling application process, Thomas earned two prestigious college scholarships.
As the recipient of both the Daniels Fund and the Boettcher scholarships, Thomas is heading to CU with few financial worries. Combined, the money will cover Thomas’ tuition, lodging and food costs for his entire career. With a specific and grueling academic plan already in mind — Thomas wants to study anthropological linguistics — that kind of financial support is critical.
“I got the (scholarship) letters on my 18th birthday,” Thomas said. “I have to keep reminding myself, ‘I’m an adult now,’ ‘I’m going to be able to have a dorm room and a roommate.’ ‘I’m going to go to class and not have to worry about if I have enough money for the month.’”
Considering the challenges Thomas faced on his route to graduation, the prospect of college was far from a given. It’s impossible to tell on first glance that Thomas is legally blind — he suffers from keratoconus, an eye disease that affects the cornea, and has to wear special contact lenses that run $800 a pair.
One of 19 children (his brothers and sisters are a mix of blood relatives and step-siblings), Thomas grew up in a household where education was hardly a priority. His stepfather, raised in the roughest neighborhoods of Flint, Mich., saw mischief and trouble as a standard rite of passage for a teenage boy. Thomas’ preference for books, foreign languages and theater seemed bizarre.
“It was a struggle. My older brothers were what he expected me to be,” Thomas said. “Part of what drove me was me trying to stand out among all of my brothers and sisters.”
The effort started in French classes in Aurora Quest K-8, where Thomas took to the language with an independent enthusiasm. He found books, films and CDs to supplement the simple phrases he picked up in the school’s beginning course. From there, he moved on to Spanish and ASL, eagerly exploring his natural skill for languages.
The talent came to a head when he started volunteering for Gateway’s ELD department in 10th grade. He translated for students and parents who couldn’t fully communicate in English. He helped refugees and the formerly destitute find a way to navigate in a new country. The feedback that came from a Venezuelan parent helped Thomas formulate a larger life plan that featured an international scope.
“They said, ‘You have given me an opportunity to fulfill my dreams, an opportunity to come to America and watch my children grow up,” Thomas said. “That really hit me hard. That made being out until 8 p.m. during the school week worth it.”
Thomas insists that Colorado will remain his home base, but he’s already considering work study programs in foreign countries as a part of his college education. He wants to refine the languages he’s already learned and add new ones to his repertoire. More fundamentally, he’s looking to college as a place for “personal exploration.”