STAR STUDENT: Luis Hernandez, valedictorian at the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies, did his schoolwork while looking after family. (
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A teen in a Sandy-stricken Brooklyn housing project who cares for a sick mom and a younger brother — not to mention 14 nieces and nephews — will be graduating at the top of his high-school class next month.
Luis Hernandez, 18, completed his college applications during evenings at the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies after Hurricane Sandy left his home and hundreds of others at the Red Hook Houses without power, hot water or heat for weeks.
He recently learned his hard work paid off.
Hernandez, the class valedictorian, has earned a free ride to the University of Southern California and was among five recipients of the first Bryan Cave LLP Edward I. Koch Scholarship for $5,000.
His 94.5 grade point average is the highest of any senior since the “A”-rated school saw its first class graduate in 2009.
“I don’t have words to say how proud I am of him. He’s accomplished so much,” said his mom, Frances Velez, a former New York City Housing employee.
“He’s a loving son. He’s been there for me — especially in my sickness,” Velez added. “He’s the type of person that if you need him, he’s there.”
Before last year, Hernandez hadn’t traveled much beyond the neighborhood and had never been on a plane.
But he spent the summer in South Africa doing community service, including painting schools, and flew this past fall to visit a prospective college in Maine.
The first member of his family to enroll in college, Hernandez is attending USC without ever having visited the LA campus.
“Kids in Red Hook don’t have belief in themselves. When I first told them that I wanted to go to college, they said, ‘Yo, you’re from Red Hook. You live here, you die here,’ ” he said.
“Those kind of things motivated me to take my first steps past the BQE.”
While he hasn’t decided on a major, Hernandez said he discovered a love of film and story-telling when he made a short autobiographical film last year about a young man struggling with his weight.
“The Tale of Timmy Two Chins” recently premiered on Showtime and is being screened next week at the Hoboken International Film Festival.
Hernandez said he started freshman year at 300 pounds but has shed close to 50 pounds through hard work.
“Sometimes you can be your own worst critic,” he said. “[But] you should always have one ally — and that’s yourself.”