PirateQ 
Pensacola State College Charter Academy student Dominic Desporte will graduate with his A.A. degree and high school diploma simultaneously in May.
Pensacola State College Charter Academy student Dominic Desporte, who will graduate with his A.A. degree and high school diploma simultaneously in May, has his sights set on an Ivy League education as he anxiously awaits news from Dartmouth College, where he has been waitlisted.
“I’ve been a bit nervous lately regarding the wait period, which is pretty expected,” he said. “I am constantly reaffirming myself that a spot will open up.”
While optimistically awaiting word from Dartmouth, Desporte has secured a spot at the University of Florida College of Agricultural and Life Sciences as an alternative. Either transfer option will advance him toward his life goal of becoming a doctor and discovering a cure for cancer, and he has carefully considered the required course of study.
“I want to meet the requirements to attend medical school, but I also need to know how innovation works in order to actually come up with something new one day. That’s why instead of the usual pre-med track, I’m choosing biomedical engineering instead, even though it is much harder, I believe,” he said.
Desporte views cancer as something that everyone has experience with, whether they have known someone with it or had it themselves. For him personally, cancer took the lives of a grandmother and grandfather.
“I want to be the hope for people that need it — the people whose lives are already affected or even being cut short by the disease,” he said. “Knowing that I can be that hope is what motivates me to study harder and put everything into my career.”
With a heavy course load, Desporte’s 3.95 GPA highlights his all-in effort to get the most from his academic career at PSC.
“What makes Pensacola State College special to me is that it is the only college that I know of that will allow high school students to take college classes full-time for two consecutive years. That’s a big deal for me; it’s an opportunity that I am very grateful to have received,” he said.
Desporte first discovered the PSC Charter Academy while researching alternatives for a more challenging high school experience. “I was bored at my old high school. My classes just weren’t rigorous enough, and I wanted to learn more. The Charter Academy was the best opportunity to receive much better education without my mother having to pay private school tuition rates,” he said.
“Dominic has been a welcome addition to the Pensacola State College Charter Academy. He strives to excel in all that he undertakes and always presents to faculty, staff and classmates with respect. He has fulfilled the total representation of a Charter Academy student,” said PSC Charter Academy Dean Karen McCabe, Ed.D. “We look forward to hearing great things about all of the accomplishments he will continue to acquire and wish him nothing but success.”
Regarding his college-level experience at PSC, Desporte says he found that the small class sizes provide a more personalized learning environment and greater opportunities for student engagement and interaction with faculty than he would expect from most other undergraduate schools.
“One of the best experiences I’ve had during my time at PSC was joining the HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) team,” he said. “I was able to network with lots of future healthcare workers and compete academically in Orlando and even Nashville, where I won first place at the international level against other college students!”
“Dominic is pretty special,” said PSC Assistant Professor Dr. Thomas Weaver, Desporte’s college-level Anatomy and Physiology teacher. “For his young age, he demonstrates exceptional character and shows maturity beyond his years. He’s a high achiever, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s pretty impressive and really one in a million.”
Desporte balances the stress of his rigorous coursework with archery and creative writing. “I have a whole notebook of poems I’ve written and a few I’ve tried to get published in the school literature magazine,” he said. “I was scared to tell anyone about my poetry at first, but now I am much more confident because I’ve freed my mind from writing to impress people. I just write for me, and if I like a poem enough, I’ll add it to my notebook and perhaps share it. It’s a very therapeutic hobby.”
Sharing in his eagerness to hear from Dartmouth are his family members. “I think the people who have helped me reach my goals the most are my family,” he said. “Specifically, my mother, Kim, and my brother, Connor. They’ve always been supportive and proud of me, and I can’t give them enough credit for that.”
His advice for other students is “find a job or subject that you are extremely passionate about and go above and beyond in it. As a great philosopher once said, if you find a job that you like, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”