(Special to The Dallas Examiner) – The Dallas Independent School District’s Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy, alongside the Friends of BOMLA, honored the achievements of the 39 seniors in the Class of 2024. The students have secured admission to college and have been awarded a combined total of over $9.6 million in scholarships and grants.
The students and their families were recognized during a special Senior Signing Day May 17 at the academy, located at 3030 Stag Road. Following was a special luncheon with keynote speaker Arun Agarwal, CEO of Nextt.
During the ceremony, the names of the 39 Class of 2024 graduates and the colleges they will attend were announced. Notably, several students have received offers from multiple prestigious institutions.
It is a tradition at BOMLA that every senior class, recognized as one of the most diverse in Dallas schools, achieves a 100% graduation rate, with each student successfully gaining acceptance into colleges or universities. A significant number of these students gain admission to the nation’s top 100 schools.
“Every year, we have an outstanding group of graduates who defy the high expectations their families and the school have of them, which is exactly what the Friends of Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy was created to support,” said Justin Parscale, partner and managing director of the Parscale Group as well as chair of the Friends of Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy. “We are humbled and pleased to have been able to contribute in some small way to their success by providing additional support to the school. We are proud to be able to congratulate them for this accomplishment and cheer them on – along with their families and school staff – as they end this journey and embark on a new one that is full of possibility.”
This year’s valedictorian was originally from Malaysia and the first generation of his family to attend college. During his time in high school, he has interned in a local clinic in his community to engage with doctors and wants to pursue a medical career.
The class salutatorian is the oldest of two siblings who has attended the school since sixth grade. A future engineer, he is a trombone player for the Varsity Jazz Assemble, a member of 100 Black Men and a regular volunteer at a nursing home for years.
Founded in 2011, BOMLA is the first single-gender male magnet school in Dallas ISD and North Texas and has a student body of more than 500 students in grades 6-12. It is one of the top magnet schools in the in Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex and the state. Since the first graduating class in 2015, BOMLA students have earned a combined $50 million in scholarships. The school emphasizes leadership development through accelerated math and science courses while instruction takes place in a non-traditional, technology-rich setting.
“What we strive to do is support the dream of a college education for each of these students not only by working with the school every year, but also by making sure they can afford their dream,” Parscale said. “This is why the Friends of BOMLA funds a college bound advisor whose sole purpose is to ensure that every single graduating student has information and access to college and scholarship applications.”
The adviser is part of the organization’s a College Bound Program to help provide college readiness support, which was established in 2019. The program supports college preparation experiences through the development of classes and special events, such as college fairs, guest speakers, college visits and SAT/ACT test preparation courses.
The organization’s other funding priorities include student enrichment opportunities, teacher professional development and program enhancements to maintain cutting-edge equipment for improved learning outcomes. The organization is committed to advancing diversity, equity, fairness, inclusion, and justice in its policies and programs to help develop the next generation of community leaders, change agents and role models.