Ra'Shawn Dornee Brown, Class of 2004
Born and raised in and around the west side of Cincinnati, Ra'Shawn is a sixteen year old who always has a smile on his face. Although things have not always been easy, Ra'Shawn keeps a positive attitude and frame of mind. Ra'Shawn's father left the family when he was just a baby. However, a few years ago, his father tried unsuccessfully to get custody of Ra'Shawn. Since that time Ra'Shawn has not seen much of his dad. While his biological father has not always been around, Ra'Shawn says that his mother has made sure to include as many great male role models as possible in his life. He, his mom, and his brother are all extremely close, and he is happy that he feels he can talk to them both about anything.
Ra'Shawn has been involved in one way of another with PSI since he was in seventh grade. He was actually a student in the program and was impressed by the message and the teen leaders who were teaching in the class. Eventually, one of his teachers recommended him to become a teen leader and as a freshman in high school, he began teaching classes. Ra'Shawn anticipated that his studies as a sophomore were likely to be much more difficult and decided to take time out from PSI to focus all energy on his grades. As a junior though, Ra'Shawn could not stay away and is back in the classroom teaching once again.
In all relationships Ra'Shawn has had with girls, he says PSI has always been in the back of his mind. As a PSI teen leader, he has taken a vow to remain abstinent. He says that the girls he dates know this about him and highly respect this character trait. He says that instead of getting a reputation as a prude, he is sometimes called a gentleman, or a ladies man. The type that every girl dreams of! A quality that he attributes to being raised by his mother and grandmother.
Ra'Shawn has made PSI, the City of Cincinnati, as well as the state of Ohio extremely proud by being elected as the only Ohio representative for the National Youth Advisory Board for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. He recently traveled, his first time on an airplane, to Washington, DC for the first group gathering. The students combined ideas on how to promote National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Day, coming up in May. Ra'Shawn made some new friends and looks forward to seeing them again at the next gathering this summer.
Another accomplishment of Ra'Shawn's is that he has seven years of perfect attendance at school. He also works with the Key Club community service program and participated in a thirty-hour famine. Members were able to experience true hunger and also help those in need. He is in Upward Bound, a college awareness program that provides classes as well as tutoring on the weekends, and a six-week school year preparation session in the summer. Ra'Shawn looks forward to the future with aspirations of college and working with computers. "I like to put together and fix computers, maybe I'll work with web designing." He says, "Growing up in a single parent home can be hard work, but it's do-able. Look how far I've gotten."
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