My name is Muheez Olajide and I am currently in eighth grade at Bedford Stuyvesant Collegiate. My family and I are from Nigeria and are Muslim. Being Nigerian has taught me many things including how to cook special dishes and be a proper person in society. For example, my family has taught me the importance of discipline. My favorite books are the Dog Man series because those books are not only funny, but include underlying themes that teach readers how to live a good life. I admire my sister. Being the oldest, she had to take care of my two brothers and me, especially when my mother was pregnant. I look up to my sister’s courage and perseverance especially because she went to school while also helping us. I don’t know exactly what I want to be when I grow up. However, I like crafting stuff so maybe I will become an engineer. But I also like soccer and would love to play pro. Regardless, I want to be someone who contributes to society at least by donating money to those in need. 

My favorite quote is from Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King said, “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” Here, he emphasizes the importance of fighting with peace because if you were to fight fire with fire, you only add to the problem. Only water, or love, can fix problems. 

I recently joined the program BK2BAMA. An interesting fact is that I wasn’t actually one of the first to join. However, I was on the waitlist eagerly hoping to get in. I was so invested in BK2BAMA because it exposes young kids like my friends and I to the past hardships and experiences people faced in America. It also teaches us about how civil rights activists tried to better America. BK2BAMA is expanding my historical knowledge and focuses on topic others might not teach us like grassroots civil rights organizing in the Jim Crow South. BK2BAMA is not only giving me more social experiences, but also opening my mind to new things I’ve never seen before. I’m excited to meet people who participated in the Civil Rights Movement. We are going to meet many special people including NAACP activists, which is exciting because we just studied W.E.B. Du Bois in school. Above all else, I’m excited to not only learn about topics that interest me, but the truth about America’s history.