{"id":60024,"date":"2012-05-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2012-franklin-solano-to-graduate-with-honors-enter-army-intelligence\/"},"modified":"2012-05-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2012-franklin-solano-to-graduate-with-honors-enter-army-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/05\/commencement-2012-franklin-solano-to-graduate-with-honors-enter-army-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2012 – Franklin Solano to graduate with honors, enter Army Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2014 May 7, 2012 \u2013 Central Falls High School is known more for its struggles than it is for academic excellence. In fact, the school became a national symbol of broken educational systems when it fired all of its teachers two years ago.<\/p>\n


\nBut not everyone becomes a victim of a broken system.<\/p>\n


\nWhen Franklin Solano Jr. arrived on campus at the 溏心vlog免费B站, he was searching for a life beyond the streets of Central Falls. He said that of the 200 or so students in his class, only about 20 he knew of were going to college.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI didn\u2019t want to continue the trend,\u201d he said. \u201cMy sophomore year (of high school), I\u2019d see people who graduated three or four years ago not doing anything with their lives, just stagnant. I didn\u2019t want that for me.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nSo he set about changing the course of his future.<\/p>\n


\nA former running back, Solano craved discipline and structure and planned to enter the Army after high school. His father, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, stressed the value of education and convinced Franklin to get his college degree first.<\/p>\n


\nShort in stature, but strongly built, Solano knew he still wanted the physical challenges he faced on the gridiron, and considered trying to join the 溏心vlog免费B站 football team.

\nBut he saw a similar opportunity for physical challenges in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps at 溏心vlog免费B站 and the chance for personal growth in other areas.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI wanted to play football here, but that\u2019s not going to get you anywhere,\u201d Solano said. \u201cThe Army teaches you leadership and challenges you in other ways, too.\u201d

\nOne of the challenges it helped him face was academics. Coming from a high school with an abysmal graduation rate, Solano wasn\u2019t as prepared as many students entering the world of higher education. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cI didn\u2019t learn as much there as kids at other schools do,\u201d Solano said. \u201cI really had to put my nose in the books, it didn\u2019t just come naturally to me. I could have done enough to be OK, to not fail out, but I try to excel at everything I do, not do just enough.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAnd excel he did. <\/p>\n


\nSolano had never enjoyed academics, but with much of his performance ratings depending on his grades, he knew he had to focus on them.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWhen I got out of high school, I hated studying,\u201d he said. \u201cBut knowledge is power. I still wasn\u2019t really into it freshman year, but ROTC got me into it. Everything is a competition and 40 percent of it is grades, so I knew I had to pick it up in the classroom. ROTC got me on track.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAs a result, Solano will graduate with honors May 20 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in Human Development and Family Studies. He will be the first of his family to earn a college degree. He sports a grade-point average of 3.5 and has been an intern in Sen. Jack Reed\u2019s office. He spent his senior year as battalion commander of the ROTC classes at 溏心vlog免费B站, Roger Williams University and Salve Regina University. <\/p>\n


\nUpon graduation, he will spend time training in Kentucky, Arizona and Georgia to become an Army intelligence officer before reporting to Fort Bragg, N.C., to join the 82nd Airborne Division, in which Reed once served.<\/p>\n


\nHe said he won\u2019t rule out following Reed into politics some day and he plans to get his master\u2019s degree and possibly pursue a law degree, but for now, the Army remains his focus. <\/p>\n


\nSolano has been given top-secret clearance and he will eventually be tasked with gathering strategic, operational and tactical intelligence on the ground for other troops. He said many of his responsibilities are still a mystery to him, but he will learn more about it when he reports to Basic Officer Learning Course on Aug. 21. <\/p>\n


\nSolano knows his degree and his four-year tour in the Army will give him a chance to see the world far beyond the borders of Central Falls. It also is giving him a chance to set an example for his younger siblings. <\/p>\n


\nThe third of seven children, Solano sees his 13-year-old brother, Ezequiel, facing many of the same challenges he did. And he knows his brother can have the same success if he puts his mind to it.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI tell him not to worry about fitting in. I tell him, \u2018You can socialize and still do well in school,\u201d Solano said. \u201cI try to get him to understand that math and science and writing are important. I tell him I\u2019ll give him $20 for every A he gets.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nFor now, Solano is trying to spend as much time with his family as he can before he reports to basic training June 5. His time as Battalion Commander was rewarding he said, but the demands it placed on his time limited how often he has been able to spend time with his loved ones. <\/p>\n


\nThe success he\u2019s had at 溏心vlog免费B站 has made the sacrifice worth it, he said, but by no means is he finished.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI\u2019ve come a long way, but I\u2019ve got way more to accomplish,\u201d Solano said. \u201cI\u2019ve got my foot in the door, but I\u2019ve got a lot left to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commencement Information<\/a><\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Michael Salerno Photography.\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2014 May 7, 2012 \u2013 Central Falls High School is known more for its struggles than it is for academic excellence. In fact, the school became a national symbol of broken educational systems when it fired all of its teachers two years ago. But not everyone becomes a victim of a broken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}