class of 2020

Braddock Senior High Student Is on Her Way to Greatness

Alabama, you’re getting among the best of South Florida’s students, and for a change, it has nothing to do with football but everything to do with life.

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No traditional graduations, no proms, no awards ceremonies, so NBC6 is honoring the class of 2020 by updating the seniors featured this school year in the Students Making A Difference segment. 

When we met Jocelyn Ferguson in February, just a couple of weeks before COVID-19 forced schools to close, we learned all about her extraordinary commitment to community service at Braddock Senior High School in Kendall.

“This is a title one school, so many students here have free or reduced lunch, so within our own walls there’s needs that should be met,” Jocelyn told us at the time.

In freshman year, Jocelyn took over the leadership of the Key Club and revived a floundering organization. She quadrupled its membership and led dozens of projects benefiting groups such as foster kids, soldiers on duty, and her own classmates. 

“So I became very passionate about it ‘cause I realized not only was the service making an impact on me, but it was making an impact on dozens of other kids who were also in the program with me,” Jocelyn said Tuesday, via FaceTime. 

I asked her what she learned from doing all those service projects, and Jocelyn said, “I started to become a lot more aware of the world that I live in, how Miami, sometimes, is like the tale of two cities, you’ll be driving through a neighborhood at one point it’ll be the most beautiful houses you’ve ever seen, and the next thing you know, you’re in a very impoverished area, so it’s definitely made me a more aware, not only local citizen but global citizen.”

Jocelyn is graduating in the top 4% of her class, a Cambridge Scholar who has her sights set on becoming a pharmacist. 

She’s going to the University of Alabama in the fall, pandemic willing. 

“Roll Tide, and I’ll be going there on the Presidential scholarship which is worth over a $100,000, so I’m very pumped!” Jocelyn said with a laugh. 

So has seeing the role of health care professionals during the pandemic amplified her desire to become one?

“Oh, definitely,” Jocelyn said. “It just makes me want to go out there and work, too, I know that I have a long way to go before I get there but definitely, seeing people serve makes me want to serve.”

Alabama, you’re getting among the best of South Florida’s students, and for a change, it has nothing to do with football but everything to do with life.

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