PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — For as long as she can remember, Sekai Abeni Edwards has loved to perform.
“When I was in the 3rd grade, my parents signed me up for a program called the Theater Brigade and I started acting,” the Jefferson High School senior told KOIN 6 News. “I just kind of fell in love with it.”
When she was putting a list together of colleges, she listed schools where she had a great chance to get in, a good chance, a decent chance and no chance.
About Julliard
— School named for Augustus Juilliard
— Merged, became the Juilliard School of Music in 1926
— Name was shortened to The Juilliard School in 1968
— 2597 undergraduate applicants
— Only 7% admitted
— 855 students from 39 countries in the college division
“And Juilliard was kind of ‘Not a chance at all,'” she said. “But I thought, well, why not apply?”
Edwards knew what she was up against. There’s no theater program at Jefferson High, she’s not in a local conservatory, the summer programs she did were isolated, and other applicants were taking full time training or had the resources for private lessons.
“That’s not my reality,” she said. But reality takes many twists.
“I did not think I would ever be here looking at an acceptance letter from Julliard. I just did not think that would be my reality.”Encouragement and more
“Sekai has always been a good student,” said Tony Hopson, the president and CEO of Self Enhancement Inc. “One of the things we often talk about in SEI is helping young people reach their full potential.”
SEI provides support services for urban youth, in school, after school and summer services. SEI works with school districts to provide support and fill in gaps.
Hopson said Sekai would probably have been successful whether she was in SEI, “but would not have had the opportunity to go to Juilliard had it not been the support SEI provided.”
He said SEI opened some doors and provided some resources for Sekai to take advantage of her opportunities.
She told them she was going to cross Juilliard off her list of school because of the application and travel costs involved for auditions. “We told her she didn’t have to cut that down,” Hopson said. SEI provided both encouragement and the financial resources for her to audition.
SEI began working with Jefferson High School 5 years ago to help give every student the advantage of their service.
“When we talk about helping each student reach their full potential,” he said, “this is a good example of us being able to come in, work with a student and help her reach her full potential.”
Sekai took part in the Whole School Model at SEI, an expansion of SEI’s core program that began at Jefferson High in the 2010-11 school year in a partnership with the Portland Public Schools.
The school improvement plan and strategies worked to boost academic achievement within Oregon’s graduation requirements.
Jefferson was targeted for closure in 2010, but in 2011 it became a magnet school that provided extra resources for students along with the chance to choose between going to Jefferson, Grant, Roosevelt or Madison high schools.
The graduation rates improved. According to the Oregon Department of Education Jefferson High School’s on-time graduation rate for seniors went from about 50% in 2010 to about 80% last year.
Everyone at SEI is excited for her, he said. “I know Jefferson High School is excited because it’s a rare occasion that a kid from Oregon even gets accepted into Julliard, let alone Jefferson High School, and obviously our first student from Self Enhancement Inc. to be accepted to Juilliard.”Sekai Abeni Edwards’ plans
“I think I’ve grown up watching a lot of very smart, very powerful people not be able to tell stories, and the stage and film allows an opportunity for people who are often voiceless in this community and in this world to be able to tell a story that really humanizes us,” Sekai told KOIN 6 News.
“What the stage does, what acting does, what art does is it allows a space for people who are disenfranchised, who are people of color.”
Sekai said she loves New York City and acting and is most excited about being able to continue doing what she fuels her passion.
“I would love to work in New York in stage and in film. I love independent film,” she said. “I love to play strong women and I love to play strong and vulnerable women.”
Despite being able to play strong and vulnerable, she admits she is “so nervous.”
“But I’m so excited. It’s an amazing group of people that I’m coming in with.”
—–Editor’s Note: A small portion of the video was provided by National YoungArts Week.This performance video was posted to YouTube by Sekai Abeni Edwards from her website