Kudos to Devon Brown - Baltimore’s Own

A Baraka success story
Teenager talks about his life-changing experience at the school in Kenya
By Makeda Crane | Sun reporter
August 3, 2008
UniSun recently caught up with 18-year-old Devon Brown, one of 20 boys from the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Baltimore who was chosen to attend the Baraka School in Kenya, a two-year experimental boarding school that was supposed to separate the students from their city lives in hopes that they would focus on their education while in Africa.
Brown is one of the success stories from the program. Last spring, he graduated from the Academy for College and Career Exploration. Later this month, he will attend the Maryland Institute College of Art on a full scholarship from the Abell Foundation, which also sponsored the Boys of Baraka project. He plans to major in film production.
Brown was the kid preacher featured in the 2005 documentary The Boys of Baraka. Although the school closed after one year due to political unrest in Kenya, it altered his life, he said.
Unlike many of his peers, Brown had the support of his grandmother, who encouraged him in his passion for preaching in the pulpit of Zion Baptist Church, which he began doing at an early age.

