LYNN — After years of hard work and dedication to his studies, KIPP Academy senior Alejandro Nina Duran is headed down south to Duke University after receiving a full-ride scholarship.
Duran said that he heard back from the school in October 2023, then flew out to Durham, N.C. a little later and loved it.
“The opportunities and connections that you need in life to just sort of be farther ahead than everyone else is so paramount, especially in this time of digital connection,” Duran said. “I believe that Duke will provide me with everything.”
Duran is also a Lynn Hispanic Heritage Scholarship recipient and a KIPP National Goldberg Scholarship winner.
When asked how he has remained so dedicated and determined to succeed, Duran said it started around the time he was 5 years old and immigrated to Lynn from the Dominican Republic.
Seeing his mom overcome the adversities she experienced as an immigrant and help him along the way was his main push to succeed.
“My superhero would be my mother… She only completed high school but she saw that there were many different opportunities in the United States. And she wants her children to be as successful as possible. She’s really a selfless character and that’s where I really saw myself,” Duran said. “I’ve seen that her selflessness has propelled me towards getting to where I am.”
Duran said without his mom, he wouldn’t be where he is today.
“I felt like I needed to give back because she gave back so much, I have to give back to her,” Duran said.
Another role model Duran spotlighted was his match counselor at KIPP, Kari Awai, who pointed him in the right direction when it came to scholarships.
“(Awai) has been just the biggest push in my secondary career. She has taught me how to write an effective personal statement that just shimmered in front of the college’s eyes,” Duran said. “She is also very much like my mother where she also has a very selfless attitude and I see that.”
He also highlighted himself for putting in the work to receive the scholarships.
Duran said that having inspirations such as his mom and Awai has made him want to be an inspiration to others. While attending Duke, Duran plans to study economics with a concentration in finance.
“I see economics as a tool that we can use to understand not only how the world has risen out of poverty, but how poverty can be put at bay if you just understand the foundation, and being economically literate with that financial understanding,” Duran said.
Coming from a low-income family, it is Duran’s hope that he can use his education to become an advocate for economic literacy in low-income households.
Duran said that he spends some of his free time mentoring juniors at his school and preparing them to apply to secondary-education institutions.
He said he gives them a few pieces of advice: Always take the opportunities you are given, always have an outgoing attitude, always be willing to go the extra mile, and have friends that will always be there to help you.
“Even if it’s small scholarships, I still go above and beyond to just apply to them because you never know,” Duran said. “If you don’t get the big scholarships, at least you got the small scholarships.”
He said he likes to always remind underclassmen that progress is never linear, so don’t give up.
“I believe that I’ve been dealt a very big handful of opportunities that have allowed me to go forward,” Duran said.
