Linden teen shares her hopes, honors, and her Habitat experience
As a little girl of seven, Jasmine Alfred couldn’t really fathom the impact that December 27th, 1999, would have on the rest of her life. That’s the day that she and her two brothers and parents moved into their own Habitat home in a North Linden neighborhood, and she finally tasted the freedom of having her own room.
Before moving into their Habitat home, Jasmine and her family lived in a series of rental homes, and she used to have to share a room with her mom. Sometimes the family will drive by the old places they lived, she says, and they look "bad and shabby."
Today, Jasmine is 17 years old, and a junior at Linden McKinley High School. She says her Habitat experience helped her to "learn responsibility, gain confidence and want to try new things." And try new things she has, as this busy teen’s schedule rivals any executive’s! She is taking AP English Literature, Spanish 4, Algebra 2, Chemistry, Health, and a Microsoft Excel & PowerPoint class. She is a member of the Linden McKinley Marching Band (she has been playing the flute since the 5th grade), the bowling team, and is trying out for the softball team this year. She has also participated in "ROX" (Rolling Our Experiences), Panther Paws (a group of high schoolers who speak to middle school kids about high school), SAVENET (Strategies Against Violence Everywhere), and teaches Sunday School at Pleasant Green Baptist Church.
Each summer, Jasmine has been accepted into Columbus State’s "Upward Bound" program that prepares high school kids for the classes they will take in the upcoming school year. After graduating high school, Jasmine hopes to attend the University of Cincinnati to study Journalism, and perhaps go on to pursue a Masters degree. She and her mentor, Liz, from the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, plan to visit the university during her spring break this year. Jasmine also wants to attend the Columbus Culinary Institute and someday open a pastry shop she will name "The Cookie Jar," because, as she explains it, "when you put your hand in a cookie jar you never know what kind you will pull out, and when you enter my shop you will never know what you’re going to leave with."
Asked what one thing she would say to other prospective Habitat children, Jasmine replies, "This is the one opportunity and memory that they will never forget, and when they look back on their life, their greatest memory will be when they got their house." From this young scholar and aspiring chef, those are sweet words indeed.
Interview by Lindsay Miller, Mortgage and Family Services Coordinator
