Kenwood Academy senior Kyndal Buchanan, recipient of this year’s DuSable Museum “Rising Star” award, has a quiet demeanor belying the passion that spills from her pen over animal cruelty.
“In my opinion, anyone that could harm another living creature should be punished by law,” the 18-year-old wrote on a blog for the group she founded, Teens Against Animal Cruelty.
“Simply put, everybody was not meant to own pets,” the future veterinarian wrote. “Animal abuse, dog fighting to be specific, is pretty prevalent in the Englewood area of Chicago. Society is becoming desensitized to the abuse. People see things and seldom make note of them.”
She holds a 3.9 GPA, is copy editor for her school newspaper and mentors and tutors at elementary schools. She’s on Kenwood’s tennis team as well as its student leadership group. And this year, she joins only a handful of Chicago Public Schools students to have received the DuSable award.
Buchanan, raised by her mother and grandmother, wowed Kenwood officials when she received six offers of full-ride or nearly full-ride scholarships from the universities she applied to.
“Kyndal is not only an excellent student, but she’s a great kid,” Principal Gregory Jones said. “She’s compassionate, hard-working and energetic. She’s very supportive of her classmates and well respected by them. Teachers and staff really like her. And she’s humble, very humble.”
The African-American history museum will honor Buchanan alongside several Chicagoans or those connected to Chicago who have made outstanding contributions to society at its 22nd Annual “Night of 100 Stars” gala Saturday at the South Shore Cultural Center.
Honorees include Johnson Publishing Co. Chairwoman Linda Johnson Rice, ESPN anchor Michael Wilbon, Fellowship M.B. Church Pastor Charles Jenkins, poet and publisher Haki R. Madhubuti and his wife, Northwestern University Professor Carol D. Lee.
“When we opened the letter from DuSable, I was just shocked, amazed, nervous,” Buchanan said.
She joins such past “rising stars” as Simeon High basketball standout Jabari Parker and Lindblom High’s Damani Bolden, a Board of Education student rep who went on to become, according to the University of Illinois, the first-ever black president of the student senate.
Source: Chicago Sun Times | Maudlyne IHEJIRIKA
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