As they pursue their dreams for the future, two members of the class of 2023 at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., with roots in different parts of the world said they are inspired by the example of their parents and bolstered by their Catholic high school experiences inside and outside the classroom.

Kingsley Ndukauba, an 18-year-old resident of Bowie, earlier graduated from St. Mary’s School in Landover Hills, Maryland, and he has a younger brother who is a fourth grader there.  Ndukauba,  who will be graduating with his Archbishop Carroll classmates on May 25, will be attending Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he plans to major in computer science. He has dreams of being a software engineer someday, and perhaps making apps or websites for a company like Google, Microsoft or Apple, and someday establishing his own software business.

The Archbishop Carroll senior, who has family roots in Nigeria, praised the example of his parents, Polycarp and Lillian Ndukauba, who both work as nurses.

“They really did inspire me to always be the best person. They are my personal mentors. They always push me to keep going,” Kingsley Ndukauba said.

A pivotal high school experience for him has been participating in Archbishop Carroll’s Jim Vance Media Program, which is named for the late veteran NBC Channel 4 news anchor who was a strong supporter of the high school and sponsored scholarships for students there. The media program, which was launched there in 2018, teaches the principles, practices and techniques of journalism, and gives students the opportunity to work with state-of-the-art equipment.

Ndukauba said he was “a really shy guy” when he entered Archbishop Carroll, but through the Jim Vance Media Program, he did things like operating the camera and assisting with the audio at school Masses. He learned how to edit and put video clips together, and he even got to interview now-retired NBC4 anchor Doreen Gentzler for a TEDx presentation at the school.

“I learned a lot of life skills, communications and problem solving skills,” he said, adding that the media program’s director, Dr. Cherie Ward, boosted his confidence and encouraged him and his fellow students to learn from their mistakes and do great work.

He added, “What I love about the program (is) you learn through experience, not just through textbooks and tests.”

The student, who attends St. Mary’s Church with his family, was an altar server and peer minister at Archbishop Carroll, and he also helped lead student retreats there. “What I enjoyed most was getting out of my comfort zone and leading a group… (and) having fun with friends,” he said.

His Catholic school experiences taught him “to try to be more loving to others and try to get to know people and see other people’s perspectives,” Ndukauba said, adding that at Archbishop Carroll, students were encouraged to “do your work well. It does strengthen you up to meet expectations in the real world. They (the teachers) let you know you’re not alone. When you need help, there is someone there.”

Ndukauba said it’s a bittersweet feeling as graduation from Archbishop Carroll approaches, because along with the excitement of completing high school and going on to college, it will be sad “leaving behind classmates.”

But he added that this summer, he will be taking what he learned from the Jim Vance Media Program, and will be trying more things, like working on learning how to edit videos for clients and making his own YouTube channel.

“It really does help you pave a path for yourself,” Ndukauba said.

Bobbie Pitts, another member of Archbishop Carroll High School’s graduating class of 2023, also praised the example of her parents. Pitts, who is 18, was born in Jamaica and moved to Washington, D.C., in 2019, after spending summers there while growing up. Her father, Robert Pitts is a retired car salesman, and her mother Sharlene Johnson works as a nurse in a nursing home.

“They both never give up, even when times are rough… They’re always there for me,” she said of her parents.

Her father encouraged Pitts to attend Archbishop Carroll. “I think he wanted me to have an outstanding Catholic education, and to experience new people. I just came from Jamaica,” she said.

Pitts grew to appreciate Archbishop Carroll’s strong academics and the sense of community there. One of her favorite classes was Advanced Placement U.S. History. In their classroom discussions, “we tried to compare to how it is now, and how we would react if we were there,” she said. She also took AP classes in English and literature.

This fall, Pitts will attend the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and major in political science. Describing her dreams for the future, Pitts said, “I would love to be a lawyer, mainly in Washington, D.C.,.. I just like that everybody has a chance to defend themselves and tell their side of the story, getting to the truth.” She added that she could help people as a lawyer. “I can be their advocate for them.” 

At Archbishop Carroll, Pitts served as a student ambassador, interacting with eighth graders interested in attending that high school. “I always tell them it’s the community I love. Everybody is so nice to each other,” she said, adding that students help their peers with homework and with everyday things like helping a classmate tie a tie.

She also was the manager of Archbishop Carroll’s dance team, which performed at football games and other school events.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pitts and her classmates spent their sophomore year taking online classes as a safety precaution. “It was a little hard,” she said, noting that in her biology class that year, “we really wanted to dissect a frog and didn’t get to,” and that year’s Spirit Week had to be celebrated via Zoom.

The next fall as Archbishop Carroll students returned back to school, “we were all so excited” to be together again, and students were eager to try new things there after their time of isolation, she said. One activity Pitts enjoyed that fall was an Outward Bound five-day backpacking and camping trip along the Appalachian Trail with a group of students and adults, including Carroll’s president Larry Savoy. One evening they spotted a bear at the campsite where they planned to stay, so they had to retrace their steps a couple of miles in the dark to where they had been and spend the night there instead. 

That encounter didn’t dissuade Pitts and fellow students from going on another Outward Bound hiking trip during her senior year. “We really had fun rock climbing,” she said, remembering what it was like hiking with a 50-lb. backpack. “We all encouraged each other. It showed we’re never alone.”

As her graduation approached, Pitts said she was feeling “a little scared… I’ll miss all my friends. We’ve been through a lot. Here at Carroll… we knew each other and could rely on each other.” But Pitts added, “I’m excited to start a new chapter.”