RED BANK: MIDDLE SCHOOL GRADS REUNITE AT HARVARD

Jacqueline Peña-Gomez, (left) Mae Woolley (right) and John Harvard (middle) on the Cambridge, MA campus Wednesday. (Photo courtesy of Jacqueline Pena-Gomez. Click to enlarge.)

By BRIAN DONOHUE

When they graduated from Red Bank Middle School amid the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, Jacqueline Peña-Gomez and Mae Woolley parted ways in a historically strange and unceremonious fashion: no graduation ceremony, no class trips, no farewell hugs. The two then spent four years in different high schools, with Woolley attending the Marine Academy of Science and Technology and Peña-Gomez going to Trinity Hall in Tinton Falls.

This week, they began settling back into a new routine as classmates once again. At Harvard University.

The two RBMS alums on the Harvard University campus during an event for accepted students in April. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)

“We were so super excited,” Peña-Gomez said of the news that they had both been accepted to the Ivy League school last spring. Now that the two are on campus, she said, “I was just very happy because it’s like having a piece of home with me here. It’s so nice to have someone I’ve known for a long time.”

Since kindergarten, to be precise, at Red Bank Primary School. “We were in a lot of classes together in primary school and middle school,” Peña-Gomez recalled in an interview with redbankgreen.

Peña-Gomez spent her first week at Harvard’s FYRE (First Year Retreat Experience) which helps first generation, low-income and under-represented students adjust to Ivy League life. She plans to study economics with hopes to someday work in finance or investment banking.

Woolley, the recipient of an ROTC scholarship, will study government and hopes for a career in national defense or diplomacy.

Meanwhile, for a district still the subject of whispered skepticism at white-collar parent cocktail parties despite reams of student success stories, it was news worth blasting out in a press release.

“As a small school district, it was impressive to hear that two students from the same graduating class applied to Harvard,” Superintendent Jared Rumage said in the press release. “But to have both be accepted was amazing.”

Both students were happy to provide testimonials of their own for the press release.

“I am thankful for being able to attend the Red Bank Borough Public Schools because my teachers, classmates, and the staff taught me the values of respect, determination, and perseverance,” Peña-Gomez stated in the release. “Programs such as AVID allowed me to better understand the value of earning an education and not being afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone. Therefore, it goes without saying that the Red Bank Borough Public Schools have become an essential stepping stone in my educational growth.”

Woolley added her take:

“The Red Bank Borough Public Schools made me excited to learn. The amazing teachers and staff created an environment that taught me how to study, perform, and succeed. These schools gave me vision and grit, and helped me realize that I can reach my goals if I am only brave enough to dream big. If not for the Red Bank Borough Public Schools, I would never have been prepared to do well at MAST, and prepared now to thrive at Harvard.”

The district listed a long list of colleges to which RBMS grads have been accepted in recent years, including Yale, MIT, Villanova, Rutgers, Drew, FIT, University of Maryland, Monmouth, Florida State, University of Miami, University of Rhode Island, Stevens Institute of Technology, Penn State and Temple.

Officials cited statistics showing the number of RBMS grads accepted to Red Bank Regional High School Academies, Monmouth County Vocational School District (MCVSD) schools, or private high schools school academies rose from 22 in 2015-16 to an average of 59 over the past three years.  

Peñ a Gomez says the value of her story for the kids behind her does not escape her.

“This is something that’s definitely keeping us motivated,” Gomez-Pena said. “So in the future other students from Red Bank can also do this and keep pushing forward and stay motivated to do this.”

redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at  [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.