Keenan Holmes
Richmond, VA
Major: Management Information Systems
Minor: Pre-Law
Recognized in high school as one of the 100 top
basketball sophomores in the USA, Keenan Holmes started out his
college career with a sports scholarship at one of the Western
Athletic Conference Schools, briefly majoring in psychology. Intrigued
by his work with computers, Keenan switched to Management Information
Systems and began considering a related career in law. Then, suffering
a partly torn ligament (and missing his daughter in Virginia)
Keenan came back east, looking for a school with a strong academic
program and a competitive basketball team. He found both at IUP,
entering the Honors College and playing for an IUP team that won
two championships in one year.
"I had been in rehab for my knee and then, sensing I was
ready, the coach put me in during a game in Louisville. I got
a three pointer. I was back. I fell in love with the sport…but,
more than that, it changed my perspective on life. No matter how
bad things are, they can always get better…I feel more mature
now, feel that I have something to share. I'm glad for what I've
been through. It's left me a stronger person."
Along with the competition on the boards, the hard-working Keenan
eagerly took up the challenge of the Honor College Core Curriculum,
with its emphasis on looking beyond the obvious, of digging deep
and asking always what it means, and what, therefore, should we
do?
"It's as challenging as I thought it would be. I'm always
learning more, I'm with people from different backgrounds –
and the whole experience has opened my eyes and helped me grow
as a person. There are so many good things I am getting out of
this. Being in Core has helped me develop some of my goals, to
think differently, to improve as a person, to see other perspectives.
What we learn there goes beyond the classroom. The Core questions
have made me think about why life – what do I know? What
can I count on?"
One of the things Keenan Holmes counts on is the solid background
and balanced curriculum offered by IUP's program in Management
and Information Systems. Combining fresh approaches to business
technology – user/manager involvement in global business,
international (and local) networking – along with traditional
business/computer skills – ranging from analysis and design
to programming and application development (and more!) –
IUP's MIS major is a truly comprehensive program. Students may
specialize, if they like, in everything from microprocessors to
mainframes, from database development to full client server applications.
"Thanks to this program, I'm working on setting up a summer
internship right now, for a company's regional HQ – up in
Northern California, a place I've ever been to – doing tech
support at $18 an hour!"
As Keenan gets ready to leave IUP and begin law school, he envisions
a life full of bright, new and unexpected possibilities. As he
wrote in his Core paper "On Transcending Environment,"
a work inspired by the writings of Frederick Douglass, Keenan
asks: "How do you get out there …if you don't even know
it exists?"
"My dream is to one day have my own business, with the
hope of bettering society, mainly for inner city youths. Of course
I still dream about playing professional basketball one day, but
if that doesn't happen, law school is a big part of my plans.
I hope to write a couple of books. I've started on the first one
already…and I write poetry…I write about what people
go through. I made a CD called 'My Life.' I'm trying to start
a business writing personalized poems for people and, honestly,
if I could do anything in the world, it would be to write. Writing…is
so powerful. You have to ask how it is that a man like Frederick
Douglass can get out of slavery and write a book, write his autobiography."
Keenan works hard, night after night, on his own autobiography
these days, a book he has titled A Rose in Cement.
"I want to get across to readers than you can get out
of a situation that seems awful, maybe so awful that escape might
not seem possible. A rose can grow in cement but there is dirt
somewhere underneath. You grow! I write every night on this book.
I can't wait to finish. And I want to do so much more. I want
to learn French, Italian – by the end of my life I want to
be fluent in a few languages, to have written a few books, to
create a few more CD's. I am not looking for money in return;
I'm not guided by money. I want people to know what I've been
through. Whatever happens, I want to help people. When I was in
Richmond, I volunteered at the Urban League, tutoring Math and
English, working with inner city kids. Just as Frederick Douglass
said – and it's my favorite quote – 'Without struggle,
there is no progress.'"
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