Marcus Stevens is following in at least one of his brother’s footsteps. He recently got the Rotary Club of St. John’s Javon Jade Alfred Scholarship, the same scholarship his brother Malik Stevens won in 2009.
And the scholarship is named after his brother Javon, who died in 2004 when hit by a truck while walking home from school.
“After that I took life more seriously,” he said.
He’s still taking it seriously, and left June 20 for Florida International University, where he starts school Monday. Stevens said he decided to study accounting after taking an Internet test that matched his interests with career possibilities. He initially though he’d major in psychology but decided that it would be too depressing to listen to people’s problems all day long.
He’s very excited about heading off to college.
“It’s a new chapter in my life,” he said.
He’s thankful for the $12,500 Rotary Scholarship, which is paid out over four years. He gets $5,000 for year one, $3,500 for year two, $2,500 for year three, and $1,500 for year four.
“I am very happy. The only thing on my mind all year was paying for college,” Stevens said.
John Fuller, a member of the Rotary Club who helped with the scholarship selection, said Stevens was the best qualified of the three applicants.
“It’s based on grades, community service and financial need,” he said.
Over the years, Stevens was in the Love City Pan Dragons, played in the Sprauve School marching band, was a volunteer at Special Olympics, ran track and field, played junior varsity football, served as a peer mediator, and was a member of the National Honor Society.
He was valedictorian at Julius E. Sprauve School when he graduated in 2008. Like many St. John youths, he took the ferry to Eudora Kean High School on St. Thomas. While he called it a cool school, he said he didn’t like how the St. Thomas students treated those from St. John.
“They’re treated like aliens,” he said.
He went off for his junior year at Harold L. Richards Junior High School in Chicago before returning home to finish up at Eudora Kean.
There was a mishap about the transfer of his grades from Chicago, which showed lower than they actually were, but he said he didn’t allow that to discourage him
“It isn’t about where you come from but where you’re going,” he said.
As for the challenges ahead, Stevens said he was up to the task at hand.
“I know I’ve got what it takes and I’m determined enough to do the work,” he said.
The son of Myron Stevens and Deverrell Alfred, he comes from a big family. Oldest brother Maurice Stevens is off in Chicago, Malik Stevens is at school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. His sister, Delrise Stevens, is out on her own. Myron Stevens Jr., Davon Alfred, and K’Janne Alfred still live at home.
He comes from a family with a strong emphasis on learning. His mother credits her interest in getting her children a good education with the fact that she didn’t have that opportunity because her parents were divorced and the family moved around.
“I told my kids that they could be somebody important or be a statistic,” she said.
