FAMU recruit is a community leader

Esther Dorilus, a senior at Golden Gate High School in Naples, is a shining example of the new talent that will fill next year’s freshman class on The Hill.

Throughout all four years of high school, she has worked as a junior staff member at the Boys and Girls Club of Collier County. Her duties include teaching basketball classes and serving as a mentor to third, fourth, and fifth grade students.

Esther became a member of the Boys and Girls Club during seventh grade during a very difficult time during her life. At age 14, she lost her mother to leukemia. Esther, one of four children, had to take up a new set of family responsibilities that placed a heavy burden on her.

“It was hard, because I had to help out and I had nowhere to bring my sister,” she recalls. “Right after school I would have to try to cook, clean and be there for my sister. I stayed up nights trying to do my homework.”

She says the Boys and Girls Club provided a supportive environment that helped her cope with the death of her mother.

“The Boys & Girls Club was a place that I could just come and relax,” she says. “It was like I had two rocks on me and I could drop them down. Staff members helped me, giving me rides, helping with my sister, calling me to see if I needed help. To have somebody call you and say, ‘You got this, you can do this, do you need any help?’ That’s amazing.”

Esther began volunteering at the club as an aerobics instructor while she was still in middle school. During high school, in addition to her teaching duties at the club, she also played basketball, ran track, and served in the JROTC.

The new FAMU recruit is excited about beginning school in Tallahassee this fall.

“I can’t wait to get there and meet people from all of the different schools,” she said. “But it will be hard to leave my dad and sisters.”

Esther will major in pre-med. She wants to be a pediatrician.