Recognizing Who You Are in Order to Succeed
A conversation with G.W. Carver Alum, Devin Lewis
Written By Kyrell Williams (Carver '19)
Self awareness is always a useful tool to get to where you need to be. Fellow Collegiate alum, Kyrell Williams, Carver ‘19, recently interviewed Devin Lewis, a Carver ‘16 alumni. Devin also just became an alumni of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette this past December, graduating with a degree in Mass Communications with a concentration in broadcasting. He talked with Kyrell about how going to a Collegiate Academies high school has helped him with his college career and shared what he has learned along the way that helped him succeed and eventually graduate.
Q: “How would you describe yourself now compared to when you were a student in high school? Is there any difference and do you feel like high school prepared you for college?”
A: “I think it’s definitely half and half. High school definitely prepared me for college... Well, no. Scratch that. High school definitely prepared me for college. I don’t think I was mentally ready for college, if that makes sense. I know for me it was like a real mental struggle, so for sure high school prepped me with, like work and you know dual enrollment and things so I got my feet wet, but like just mentally nahhh I wasn’t ready, but that’s more personal.”
Q: “Can you share more about what you mean when you say you weren’t mentally ready?”
A: “For me, it was always tough. Especially my freshman year was tough because I came in like, you know, top of the class, making A’s all the time. I didn’t have to study a lick, like I just went in and knew it. So I developed what I would now call a “bad habit” for me personally because there’s people who could still do that in college you know. I know people who could do that, don’t have to study a lick and still could go do it, but in college that wasn’t me. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t even do basic math like that no more, you know. So I had to learn. It was a struggle trying to learn, study, and become a new student. I had to relearn to become a new student in college so that was the mental toughness I went through.”
Q: “Describe the path you took after graduating high school up until now? What methods did you use to guide you through your journey?”
A: “It was a lot of talking to a lot of people, you know, from family members, to people in the Collegiate organization, old principals... I just talked to a lot of people about how I feel, even staff at [University of Louisiana at Lafayette] that I stay in contact with, talking about next steps to what should I do. Just a lot of talking and a lot of knowing yourself, knowing who you are, taking a step back. It’s honestly a tough process because you think it’s easy getting a degree, that door opening for a job, but it’s so many steps in between that. So it took a lot of talking and a lot of reflecting on yourself and who you are as a person, but that’s what I been going through a lot.”
Q: “If a new student was considering attending your former high school or even former college, what would you tell them as far as going through with the process of completing both high school and college?”
A: “This actually pertains to both college and high school: go in open minded. Don’t go in thinking that it’s all a walk in the park or you’re going to go in there and think it’s just school. I’m just here. Like no, go in open minded and make the most of your time because, one, life is short and two, some of your best experiences are going to come from high school and college, and that’s one of the things you’re going to remember for a lifetime. So, you know, go in there open minded and just always think positive. That’s something I’d say.
Q: “Walk me through the next three years of you? What do you have going for yourself?”
A: “Currently right now I’m doing my own podcast. I’m in the process of getting that worked up. I got all of the equipment I need. It’s still like small tedious stuff I gotta do... graphics and all this type of stuff and I’m teaching myself how to do all of that too. So that’s what I do for myself, but I do eventually want to start that so I can expand myself to have more work to look forward to and other jobs in the career field. So that’s currently what I’m doing right now.”
Q: “What do you want your impact on this world to be?”
A: “I’m going to use a quote from 2Pac. 2Pac said once that one man can change the world, but it’s not him. He wants to be the spark that changes the world. So that always stick with me. I feel like maybe I could change the world or maybe I could find that one person who I could influence or just say one thing that will change the world. So I just go about my day trying to be positive, always trying to compliment somebody, you know, just something I could do small because maybe that one person might have a big impact in my life and on the world. So that’s just how I look at it. I could be the one who change the world for all I know, [You] could be the one who change the world I don’t know, but I always try to go about my life with positivity because that one person could change the world that I talk to. That’s the impact I want to have. Hopefully I’m doing something that is going to end up a hundred million years down the line, I could look up and say, ‘oh yeah I started that’.”