Confidence – that is what it took for Jackie Robinson, an African-American baseball player, to break the color line in American’s favorite pastime and play Major League Baseball.
Xavier Morgan-Gillard, a fourth-grader at University School District’s Jackson Park Elementary School, also needed confidence to overcome the barrier of selective mutism, a type of social anxiety that made him afraid to talk to anyone outside of his family as a kindergartener.
Xavier wrote about the attributes necessary for Robinson, the late sports icon and legendary civil-rights figure, to survive in his essay “What Jackie Robinson and I Have in Common.”
“I am in the student council, on a robotics team, play soccer, baseball, piano and cello. When something is hard for me,” he wrote, “I think about Jackie Robinson and how he overcame his barriers, which helps me overcome mine.”
Xavier was selected as a first-place winner in the Major League Baseball and Scholastic Inc. 2013 “Breaking Barriers in Sports, In Life” essay contest, which drew 18,700 submissions.
As a first-place winner, Xavier and his classmates will receive a special visit from Sharon Robinson, Jackie Robinson’s daughter; an autographed set of her book “Promises to Keep” and Breaking Barriers T-shirts. In addition, Xavier and his teacher Debbie Rosso, who encouraged him to enter the contest, both received laptop computers during a special presentation Tuesday afternoon.
Later that night, Xavier was announced on the field when the St. Louis
Cardinals faced off against the Cincinnati Reds.
“It’s a wonderful feeling to have one of our students do so well,” said Elliott Shostak, Jackson Park Elementary School principal.
“What an extraordinary accomplishment. He is an incredible young man and very deserving of the honor.”
