Armante Washington Leads Gang of Four Math Scholars

American Indian High School graduates at Thompson Hall at UC Davis. From left to right: Alan Sau, Denny Ho, Armante Washington, and Daysi Nemecio.

Part II
By Tanya Dennis

Armante Washington by his own admission was lazy, not motivated and undisciplined.
“I was not always a scholar, had high expectations, but didn’t meet them because I was lazy and didn’t have a coach to show me anything different.  I had the support at home but didn’t have the discipline at school.”
A student attending St. Elizabeth’s in the 6th and 7th grade his mother, Troylynn Turner, transferred him to American Indian High because she felt she was paying for nothing.  She refused to keep paying for him to fail and talked to his sixth grade teacher. That teacher told Ms. Turner about American Indian High.
“I was not happy,” says Armante.  “Not only did I miss my friends and hanging out and doing all the wrong things, I also had to be retained.  I was depressed, but that was the last time I cried about my education.”
“Mr. Chavis was strict and I had to do all this homework, and it wasn’t fun.  But being around all these students who were smart and seeing Mr. Chavis coming into class embarrassing kids who weren’t doing well changed my attitude.  Mr. Chavis would clown you in front of everybody if you weren’t doing good but he also rewarded people. He’d bring you into the cafeteria and would tell everybody about the good deed you did. Within weeks I changed.   Chavis doesn’t waste time, he hates to waste time and he won’t let you waste time.”
“I don’t know how they do it but they hire the most amazing teachers.  Mr. Isaac Berniker is the best math teacher in the world!  He teaches calculus and pre-calculus and is just an all round amazing guy.  He knew his curriculum like the back of his hand, many (teachers) know math but don’t know how to teach it.  He was dynamic, he’d move around the class, he had confidence, he wasn’t afraid to discipline.  His presence demanded respect.”
“I was the only African American in calculus. There were five Hispanic, and fourteen Asian students.  I’ve been with those students since the 7th grade, so not only was American Indian High an amazing school, I had amazing relationships, and now we’re in college together and we intend to all major in engineering and go into business together.   There will be one Hispanic female, Daysi  Menecio, three Chinese Alan Sau, Kaitung Song, Richard Than and me.”
“I graduated this past June and got a full ride scholarship to UC Davis. I plan to go to graduate school and do an internship at the Keystone Program with The Defense Contracting Management Agency, they’re a part of the Federal Government in Sacramento.  My partners and I are going to go after government contracts.”
“My mom is so proud of me, especially after where I came from.  Those were the worst times of my life for my mom to be disappointed in me.  Because she is so proud of me I feel happy even though the pressure is on.  My mom emphasizes that because I’m an African-American male I’ve got to work  harder.”