Shamar Cousin is a 17-year-old Philadelphia resident and current senior at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School. In the classroom, Shamar is an honors student, set to attend the University of Notre Dame next year, with a passion for writing.

He developed his love for writing at a relatively late age, around halfway through his freshman campaign at the Prep, but he has incorporated said love into his everyday life. He attends an after-school program named Inn Dwelling, where he assists high school students in composition and other aspects of the English curriculum.

Outside of academia, Shamar is a basketball enthusiast who expresses his love for the game through both playing and coaching. He sees playing basketball as a means of stress relief, playing whenever he can find the time. He coaches youth basketball teams, fifth and sixth graders specifically,  not only because of his passion for basketball, but because he would like to be seen as a role model for the children. He wishes to take the members of the team “under his wing,” and help them develop as both basketball players and as moral people.

Shamar decided to attend the Acel Moore High School Journalism Workshop on account of his desire to seek a career in the field of writing, but not being aware of what an occupation in journalism fully entails. He hopes to use the Acel Moore program to garner knowledge about being a journalist, and to improve his writing skills.