Dialog reporter
MAGNOLIA — Johnsenia Brooks spent part of September campaigning to be the student body president at St. Thomas More Academy. Perhaps she picked up a few pointers from the president himself over the summer, the president of the United States, that is.
Brooks, a senior, was one of two Delaware students to attend Girls Nation, a program that brings high schoolers to Washington each summer to see how the government works. One of the perks of the program is the opportunity to meet the president.
With 98 girls in the room, President Obama could speak with each for only a moment. Brooks, 16, was overwhelmed when he arrived.
“As he walks in I just started crying, just bawling my eyes out because it was an opportunity I never thought would happen this early in my life,” she said this week at St. Thomas More. “I got to meet the first African-American president of the United States. He’s history. Regardless of which party he’s from, he’s still the president of the United States. I think that’s a position that’s respected and that people should respect.”
After telling the president where she was from and where she went to school, she decided to go for broke.
“I just said, ‘Is there any way I could get a hug?’ He just gave me a huge smile. He’s like, ‘Sure, of course you can,’” she recalled.
The White House photographer captured the moment and sent the picture out via Instagram. It also ended up as a White House Photo of the Day in July.
Brooks has made quite an impression at St. Thomas More as well. She was vice president of her freshman and sophomore classes before capturing the junior class presidency last year. She played volleyball for three years and will join the basketball team this season, and she is a four-year member of the tennis team. She competes in Math League and Envirothon, and she is involved in campus ministry as a youth leader.
She volunteers with the Elk Lodge in Magnolia, where she lives with her parents, John and Gleny. Every year at Christmas, she dresses up as an elf and gives toys to parents for their children. She also tutors students in math at Holy Cross School in Dover, which she attended as an eighth-grader, and she occasionally reads at the Spanish Mass at Holy Cross. In addition, she speaks at Holy Cross about the advantages of St. Thomas More.
That’s quite a bit for anyone, but Brooks said it really isn’t too difficult to fit everything in.
“I always find time. The time just comes from having good time-management skills, I guess. If I can’t commit myself to something, I won’t because I don’t want to do things halfway. I want to make sure everything I do is done correctly and that I have fun with it,” she said.
Bronx to Magnolia
Her four years has been the longest stretch she’s spent at one school since moving from New York City in 2010. Brooks and her mother moved from The Bronx to Denton, Md., to be closer to her maternal grandmother, who lives in Maryland. She finished sixth grade at a public school in Maryland, then attended seventh grade at a public school in Delaware after she and her mother moved to Magnolia. Her father remained in New York for two years while looking for a job in this area.
The family found Holy Cross in time for eighth grade. Brooks had attended a similar Catholic school in New York, so Holy Cross felt familiar.
“Coming in eighth grade year was a little weird because these kids had had relationships for years and I was the new kid,” she said. “But I think because of the faculty, they were so, I don’t know, they were just very friendly, and they were helpful whenever I had a question.”
She has found the same atmosphere at St. Thomas More. She said the students are close, and the building is filled with positive relationships. An only child, Brooks said her friends are like siblings. She also said the school has given her many opportunities, such as that to attend Girls State, which led to Girls Nation.
“All the doors, from this point forward, have come from here, like that opportunity I got to meet the president of the United States,” she said.
She sees herself as a mentor to younger students at St. Thomas More. “I think it’s really important for the upperclassmen to have a good relationship with the underclassmen because once we leave, they’re still here, and they have to set the example for the next generation.”
She is currently in the midst of her college search, including a few Ivy League schools. Brooks said she will major in political science with a minor in psychology, then attend law school.
