Gonzaga Preparatory School: Kameron Pitts’ dedication to education started early

In fourth grade, Gonzaga Prep senior Kameron Pitts got a “less than desirable” grade on an assignment.

Years later, he still remembers thinking “never again.”

That hard work and dedication to his education paid off in eighth grade when Pitts received the Mike Shanks Scholarship, granting him a nearly full ride to Gonzaga Prep. A majority of his siblings had attended Prep, so he felt like he practically grew up going to the school he would eventually attend.

“Frankly, I knew that it would offer me the education that I needed to excel,” he said. “Personally, I felt that the other high schools in the area would not have given me the opportunities that Gonzaga Prep has.”

At Gonzaga Prep, Pitts didn’t just skate through high school on that scholarship. Instead, he took advantage of everything the school had to offer.

He filled his schedule with honors and AP classes, especially after discovering in his freshman year that he loved biology and wanted to become a doctor, following in the footsteps of his mother and grandmother, who were both nurses.

Outside of the classroom, Pitts has done a lot of volunteer work. He participated in the school’s annual food drive and was chosen to be in the school’s Margins program, which takes 20 to 30 students to New Orleans, San Francisco or Los Angeles for volunteer work.

For his junior and senior years, he’s been part of Agape Service Group; in his senior year, he is one of the leaders. The group volunteers with organizations such as Second Harvest and their Bite2Go program, which helps fight food insecurity. Pitts benefited from the Bite2Go program in elementary school and enjoys seeing parallels in helping pack food bags that his younger self enjoyed.

He has been involved in student government all four years of high school and was named salutatorian his senior year. He also played soccer three of his four years at Gonzaga Prep and wrestled as a freshman. Pitts has also spent time on the school’s Knowledge Bowl team, particularly liking the questions that require quick math.

“It taught me to be humble, in a way, because it has shown me that while I am touted as smart and I do all these classes, I definitely don’t know everything,” he said. “It’s a great way to learn humility and be able to work in a team with people that are smarter or just as smart as you.”

All that hard work and dedication again paid off with Pitts receiving the QuestBridge National College Match Scholarship, granting him a free ride to Washington University in St. Louis, where he plans to study to become a musculoskeletal interventional radiologist.

“I feel that it entwines what I love about the human body, and I’m able to use my knowledge of that and directly help someone hand to hand,” he said.

Gonzaga Prep counselor Sarah Long has known Pitts since he was a baby, as she is married to Pitts’ cousin. Because of their different last names, many on the faculty didn’t know they are family; Long has enjoyed hearing other faculty members speak highly of Pitts in her presence.

“We were saying with this Shank scholarship he received here, it’s the best ‘rinse and repeat’ thing you could have ever done,” she said. “He saw something he wanted, and he put himself out there, and he achieved it. That’s what I see of Kameron is his belief in education and his value of education.”