O'Neil anderson, Boston '98 alumnus

“What I have learned in Summer Search is that when we take the risk of unhiding our feelings, people respond and we create a community full of trust.”

In a neighborhood devoured by gangs and violence, with an incarcerated father, O’Niel inherited his mother’s altruism and has assumed the role of the man of the family. With every stride forward for O’Niel, as for many Summer Search students, coming home to the same dangerous community and the severe challenges in his family.

After O’Niel returned from his successful Outward Bound trip his first summer, his cousin was shot and killed, his father was deported to Jamaica and his mother was diagnosed with skin cancer. Through all these challenges, O’Niel has stayed resilient with the help of his Summer Search mentor, Monique Rodrigues.

On his second Summer Search Trip, a home stay in the Netherlands, O’Niel spent six weeks living with a nurturing family. Following that experience in the fall of 2005, O’Niel sprang forward to become a leader in his community by joining the Boston Mayor’s Youth Council as a Roxbury representative. He also gave a soulful speech at the Summer Search Boston Fall Event. Currently O’Niel is considering his options past high school, and plans to be the first in his family to go to college.