Durell Ball

My name is Durell Ball, I graduated from Henrico High School in 2010 and I’m currently finishing up my final year at Virginia Commonwealth University. During my High School years, I was very lost on what I wanted to do in my future and how will I make it happen. My grades wasn’t eye popping at all and my GPA was a below average number of 2.1 percent. It took me a lot of soul searching during my graduation year to figure out a plan for myself as soon as I graduated. With advice from my teachers and guidance counselor, I decided to start slow and enter Community College while deciding what I wanted to do with my life.
While at J Sargent Reynolds, I would use my down time between classes to look up possible degrees that would interest me. I’m a huge fan of History, so for a while I was strongly pursuing a degree in that field. When one day taking my history class at the Community College, I asked my history teacher whether she saw this as a good fit for me. She was very honest in her opinion and told me that “If you would have asked me 10 or 20 years ago, I would have said yes. But since it’s so hard to find jobs in the country now, I advise you to pursue a major that doesn’t involve a small field with many people already pursuing it.” I took her words to heart, and decided to search for a new major.
That’s what encouraged me to me apply to VCU, in order to pursue a degree in the Homeland Security program. During my course of studies in VCU I have learned so much about the security of our nation while also applying myself in seeking education to expand my knowledge as a student. Receiving an invitation from the Honors Society has shown me that my hard work and dedication has paid off and helped me come a long way as a student. Looking back, I am amazed and humbled to see how not giving up and pursuing your dreams can help you achieve anything in life. I am confident that I will be a great asset to any future team of Homeland Security professionals I join as I continue to apply this hard work and dedication in my future career working to protect our homeland.