Scholar of the Week
Télisi Johnson of Richmond Community High School
By Janeal Downs
Télisi Johnson’s favorite hobby isn’t like most high schoolers. Unlike many, order ailment she loves to clean, organize different spaces and make things aesthetically pleasing. “I pay close attention to details and am somewhat a perfectionist,” Télisi said. “So I do what I can to make things look as good as they can.” This hobby is what influenced her to want to help other people who don’t enjoy it as much as she does. Because of this, Télisi desires to pursue a career as an interior designer. She plans to further her education not to just get ahead, but to learn more about what she already enjoys doing.
While she has often been encouraged to major in something like math, law or economics and attend a school like Harvard, Télisi said she just had to follow her heart and do what she liked. While she knew her parents wouldn’t force her into a career she did not want, she needed to find something that was for her. In order to follow her dreams, Télisi applied and was accepted into the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. In the past, she has visited the school for spring break and for a week in the summer where she was able to get a taste of the campus by taking interior design and acrylic painting classes. “I wanted to go somewhere down South where it’s warmer, the attitude is nice, you know, Southern hospitality,” Télisi said. “I just like the atmosphere and what they have to offer me.” She also liked the fact that the school recycles old buildings such as an old train station, banks or office buildings and turns them into education buildings.
For Télisi, going to college will be “about starting a different chapter in life, turning the page and writing my own story.” She has been preparing for life in college by participating in numerous extracurricular activities in high school. She spends a lot of time with children working with the Richmond Public Schools Education Foundation’s MARS program where she mentors and reads to first graders. She is a member of Future Business Leaders of America, the National Honor Society, Richmond Community High School Council, the Key Club and she is also an ambassador. One thing she will take from her high school years to college is the importance of not procrastinating. “Focusing on the future is hard to do when your present is so chaotic,” Télisi said. However, because of this she hopes to plan ahead.
Télisi said she motivates herself to succeed because while her parents may continue to push her, no one else is going to do the work for her. “It’s not about what my parents want, it’s not about how my friends are going to see me 10 years from now at my reunion,” Télisi said. “It’s just about me being happy, me having a good job doing something that I want to do and not having a job that makes a lot of money just because it makes a lot of money.” When all of the seniors at her school had to pick a six-word memoir for the yearbook, she chose “sometimes you got to lose to win” like Fantasia’s song “Lose to Win.” What this means to her is that sometimes everything won’t be easy, life will be challenging, and some things will have to be put on the back burner, but she said she knows it will all be worth it in the end.
