Learning from our alumni
Adding an enrichment program at Booker High to the existing programs at McIntosh Middle and Sarasota High was a natural expansion of SSTRIDE .
Booker is Sarasota County ’ s only low-income and predominantly minority high school , with 71 % of its 1,304 students either Black , Hispanic or multi-racial , according to National Center for Education Statistics for the 2020-21 school year .
College of Medicine alumnus Rashad J . Sullivan ( M . D , ’ 13 ) was one of the first guests to make a virtual visit with Booker SSTRIDE students . Sullivan , who recently completed an orthopedic surgery fellowship in Tampa , went through the SSTRIDE and Bridge programs at FSU .
“ He had the same background as our students ,” Truel said . “ He ’ s a minority , he grew up low-income , he actually was incarcerated ... when he was younger . The students saw it as so powerful that they grew up in the same neighborhood he did and he had all these struggles that were stacked against him , but he still made it all the way through .”
As keynote speaker during an October 2021 SSTRIDE alumni virtual reunion , Sullivan credited “ God ’ s grace and the open hearts of a lot of people ” for his success .
“ We are here tonight to celebrate one of the most significant contributions to my success story ,” Sullivan told the audience of nearly 150 . “ SSTRIDE changed my life .” He shared a similar message with Booker students . “ It ’ s kind of that reiteration that we ’ re telling the students , ‘ You can do it even though your parents can ’ t send you to college and pay for it ,’” Truel said . “ We ’ re telling them that , but this is a person that ’ s lived it . They ’ re not just living through adversity . They ’ ve had SSTRIDE help get them to the final destination .”