This Young Man Is a Change Agent | Black Enterprise Former high school student flips the rules by developing school-wide We Dine Together program

Twelve years ago when Denis Estimon came to the U.S. from Haiti, it would have been hard for even the most visionary teacher to see him as a future change agent. But that’s exactly what that little boy—the only black child in the Boca Raton elementary school and the only one who couldn’t speak English—grew up to become.

At the time, Denis was an isolated 6-year-old, eating lunch alone, constrained by the barrier of language. He felt that he couldn’t approach the other students because he couldn’t understand English.

“It was like that until I was in third or fourth grade,” Estimon told me. He is now a freshman studying entrepreneurship at Everglades University—and has no trace of an accent. He says he worked hard to eradicate it, but can still speak some French and is fluent in Creole.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become charter members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th and newest museum of the Smithsonian Institution. (Website).