Making their mark: This isĀ Ā of profiles celebrating members of Rochesterās graduating class of 2018.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Matthew Lyskawa ā18 saw no purpose in school.
āI hated it,ā he says.
Bored and frustrated, he was dismissed from two high schools for disciplinary reasons, finally graduating with a 1.8 grade-point average. He was chronically truant, and police often escorted him to school at his motherās request.
One day his junior year, a teacher summed up what he says others must have been thinking.
āIāll be surprised if you work anywhere but McDonaldās,ā the teacher told him.
This Sunday, Lyskawa will receive a bachelorās degree in philosophy from the University of Rochester. This fall, heāll begin a doctoral program in philosophy at Harvardāafter turning down offers from Brown, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and California-Berkeley.
His turnaround is nothing short of amazing.
āI am proof,ā he says, āthat itās possible to fail forward.ā
A rough beginning
Lyskawa felt like an outsider from the start. He grew up the youngest of five children, the only African American in a white family, and the only one with a different father. He was also the lone black person in most of his classes.
āI felt out of place,ā he says.
Lyskawa faced other serious challenges. His family received social support and was in Section 8 housing. A brother who suffered from bipolar disorder directed racial slurs at him such as āslaveā and āmonkeyā almost daily.
āIt was relentless,ā Lyskawa says. āIt made me hate being black. I truly hated what I looked like, and the group I was part of. I didnāt think I was anything but what he called me.ā
He met his biological father at 17, only to discover āwe had no real connection.ā
He also was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in the third grade and prescribed Ritalināwhich he says he began abusing in high school. Eventually, he was able to wean himself off the drug. But he could do nothing about school, which had become a daily chore. āIād think, āWhy the hell am I here when I have all these problems at home?ā Lyskawa says. āI had academic apathy.ā
Things began to change during his senior year at Gladstone High School in Covina, California, thanks to an English teacher named Sheryce Long. She saw something in Lyskawa that others had missed.
āMatthew had a thirst for learning and discourse I couldnāt ignore,ā Long says. Lyskawa āseemed to have fallen through the cracks of the education system.ā She asked him why someone who seemed so bright had never taken advanced classes. āIāve never been in a school long enough for someone to notice my need for a challenge,ā he answered.
Long noticed that Lyskawa often finished his classwork significantly earlier than other students. She decided that instead of having him āwasting time napping or playing on his phone, I suggested he read books.ā
The first book Long chose for him was Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youthās Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa. Although itās more than 500 pages long, Lyskawa devoured it in days, then asked Long for another. He read A Long Way Gone. Life on the Color Line. Black Like Me. Roots.
āI fell in love with reading and couldnāt stop,ā Lyskawa says.
When he graduated, he made a decision: āI have to go to college and learn more.ā
Finding his niche
Lyskawa enrolled at Mount San Antonio College, a community college outside of Los Angeles, and recorded a 3.4 grade-point average after two years. Wanting to push his boundaries, and by now enthralled with philosophy, he applied to Rochesterā3,000 miles awayāand was accepted.
āIt was a difficult decision, because Los Angeles is so different from Rochester in many ways,ā he says. āBut I made the move.ā
Hayley Clatterbuck, an assistant professor of philosophy at ĢĒŠÄlogo says Lyskawa challenged himself from the start. āHe asked if I would grade him like I would grade a graduate student, explaining that he wanted to be held to the standards to which he aspired,ā she says.
Paul Audi, an associate professor of philosophy, says Lyskawa always wrote drafts of papers well in advance of deadlines.
And Randall Curren, chair of the , says Lyskawa is the first philosophy student in his 30 years at Rochester to continue as a doctoral student in that field at Harvard. āThis is a great moment for us, and all the more exciting because itās the culmination of Matthewās audacious journey,ā he says.
Lyskawa was also a McNair Scholar in the David T. Kearns Center, something he calls āan essential part of this journey.ā
āThe love and support from the Kearns advisers made me feel welcomed at Rochester and enabled me to succeed,ā he says.
Lyskawa entered the spring 2018 semester with a 3.85 grade-point averageātwo full points higher than his high school GPA.
āThe faculty have been nothing short of amazing,ā he says, adding that āthis was the first time I was around students who had passion like me, and it was stimulating.ā
Long says she is thrilled at Lyskawaās successābut not surprised.
āMatthew is one of the most inspiring people Iāve ever met,ā she says.
Lyskawa will become the first in his family to graduate from college, but perhaps not the last.
āMy mom is now going back to school because of me,ā he says. āSheās been super motivated. And my sister is going back to college.ā
Lyskawaās goal is to earn his juris doctor degree and become a law professor. It means six or seven more years of education. A few years ago, that would have terrified him. Now, it energizes him.
āItās still surreal, to be honest,ā he says. āIām addicted to learning.ā
