<p>As soon as Bryan Sam’s mother was sent back to Honduras, he knew it was time to focus on graduating high school so he could make her proud.</p>
<p>Sam, who is graduating this week from Clark-Pleasant Academy, admits he didn’t take school seriously when he was at Whiteland Community High School.</p>
<p>“High school, you’re a kid. Life was different at that time,” Sam said.</p>
<p>But then his mother was deported to Honduras when Sam was a junior, and that put everything in perspective, he said.</p>
<p>“When she left, I finally realized that I had to do it. I had to make it on my own, some way, somehow,” Sam said.</p>
<p>“When I came here, I finally started changing the people I was (hanging) around with, and I started hanging with the right people, the smart people, the people who really want to do something with their life.”</p>
<p>He met a friend that he wants to open a business with after college, Sam said. The two want to build smart homes and also handle landscaping for homeowners.</p>
<p>Sam’s main motivation is to show his mother that he can be successful, and he feels added pressure since he is the youngest in his family, he said.</p>
<p>“I know that my mom wanted at least one of her kids to graduate, at least one of her kids to go to college,” Sam said. “Now that I’ve graduated, I want to do better for her.”</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="The Sam File" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Name: Bryan Sam</p>
<p>Age: 18</p>
<p>Residence: Greenwood</p>
<p>Graduating from: Clark-Pleasant Academy</p>
<p>Future plans: Attend Ivy Tech Community College and study business administration and computer programming</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
