Way to Go! Valley Stream student pursues love of law
Solomon Akaeze has been accepted this fall in Columbia Law School’s High School Law Institute. Credit: Valley Stream Central High School District
A Valley Stream student with a love of law has accumulated achievements ranging from co-founding a social justice club to being selected to a prestigious law institute.
Solomon Akaeze, a senior at Valley Stream Central High School, is president and co-founder of his school’s Students Committed to Social Justice Club, which encourages discussions on issues such as ethnicity, race and social inequalities and injustices.
He will also spend his Saturday mornings this school year studying the fundamentals of law at Columbia Law School’s High School Law Institute.
“I am very grateful for this opportunity, and I can’t wait to see where this leads me,” Akaeze said. Of his love of law, he said: “I have a passion for advocacy, and I feel like I could use the skills I’ve garnered advocating for my peers in a career like law where I’d be advocating for people in the legal system.”
Akaeze, 16, is also president of his school’s Black Student Union and a member of Student Council and the National, English, French, History and Math honor societies. In addition, he is vice chair of event planning for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Freeport Youth Chapter and is involved with a youth civic engagement program called YVote.
“When he wants something, he goes for it,” said his guidance counselor, Samantha Cipriano. “He’s a role model to everybody in the building.”
Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
