Ricardo Sullivan

NJ, USA
PLE II 2019

“Before YYGS, I thought I would have been content with a business degree and a 9-5 job at an accounting firm. Because of all the fields I explored at YYGS, I have adjusted my goals to include some sort of interdisciplinary work and I am now hoping to pursue a degree in the social sciences. YYGS helped me realize that my future does not have to be limited by my current financial status and that the sky truly is the limit.”

In December 2019, my friend and I presented a plan to construct a memorial for military veterans who graduated from our high school to our principal. Although neither of us have family members that have served, we recognized the need to honor those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. We were inspired by a similar monument built in a neighboring town in 2018, which currently honors 2,337 veterans from the area.

With the help of the Chairman of my high school’s history department, we first founded the “History Club,” which currently has a total of 27 members from a variety of the school’s history classes. The History Club has been hard at work this past month in collecting data on veterans who graduated from Pompton Lakes High School. We are also planning on building a website which will allow people to claim a spot on the memorial for themselves or their loved ones, or “sponsor a veteran.”

Our goal is to raise the necessary funds to construct the monument by May 2020. The memorial will be built near a seating area next to the track at Hershfield Park, my school’s main athletic facility. 

Ambassador Year: 
2019