Michael Ndubisi is a 17-year-old Black student and first-generation U.S. citizen who graduated in May from North Salinas High School. Ndubisi has lived in Salinas for two years and in that short amount of time, instead of staying behind the scenes, he created a stir among his peers and got them interested in activism and volunteering. Ndubisi was president of The Junior State of America, a grassroots youth organization. He led the club to organize and oversee events such as a Know Your Rights campaign for undocumented immigrants; hosted a dialogue with the Salinas Police Department about how it has engaged with the community and to address the national conversation on police brutality; and organized fundraising events to help people impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Ndubisi was also a runner-up for the Salinas Youth Poet Laureate competition.
He intends to pursue a degree in political science when he enrolls at Yale University this fall. He is the maverick in his family because he’s not planning to pursue a career in science or medicine, instead taking a direction to continue his activist streak.
Ndubisi has been an organizer since he was in middle school, and plans to continue with it once he moves to Connecticut. Once he finishes his bachelor’s he plans to attend law school with a goal of becoming either a prosecutor or public defender. He wants to be an actor in changing the legal system and making it more equitable for everyone. He spoke to the Weekly about his aspirations.
Weekly: Several of your relatives work in the medical field. How did you get interested in a different direction of political science and law?
Ndubisi: The moment I think I realized I wanted to go into public service came as early as age 5, when I saw Barack Obama become president of the United States. I didn’t realize at that age what a president was or who Obama was, but I remember sitting in our apartment in Long Beach and my mom that evening was crying. I was just like, “Why is mom crying about this guy?” Then he spoke, and his words had the ability to transcend race and gender. I didn’t know who he was but he looked enough like me that I could say: “I want to make the same impact in people’s lives that man is having right now.”
You talk about wanting to reform the justice system. Are there any specific areas you would like to change?
Most criminal cases don’t even end up going to trial. They end up getting settled outside of court in plea bargains. That doesn’t seem right. When people are innocent of crimes that they are accused of committing, but they end up taking a plea bargain – because they can’t take days off of work or they are too afraid of the consequences of [their case] being heard by a jury of their peers – that’s wrong. Let’s balance the scales of justice and make sure that the system works the way it was intended to: for all people.
You are a first-generation U.S.-born citizen. Does that make you feel any particular type of responsibility?
There is a sort of pressure to go out and succeed because your parents have sacrificed so much for you, so much more than the average parent does. Yeah, there is a pressure to succeed, but that’s also offset, I think, by a loving culture and accepting culture, a supportive culture that allows you to succeed.
What have you learned over the past year-and-a-half of sheltering-in-place during the pandemic?
I’ve learned a lot, about my own capacity to work for the common good. I also learned about the human capacity to be kind and empathetic to one another. It’s extraordinary times like these that really activate that, and I got to see that firsthand. I hope as we reopen we don’t go back to our sort of isolated ways. While we were not physically distant we were all sort of living in our own bubbles.
What advice would you give to high school students now headed into their senior year?
Have fun. I think that will be the best piece of advice I would give them. Enjoy your senior year. High school doesn’t last forever and these are the memories that are going to last a very long time.