Albert Como
Albert Como was born on August 10, 2000 in Galveston, Texas. He is a proud member of Avenue L Missionary Baptist Church whose pastor is Rev.E.R Johnson. Albert has served there as the Youth Department President for four years. Albert was one of the first students to attend Ambassadors Preparatory Academy when it was created in 2008.
Albert shares that learning didn’t always come easy for him as many people would think due to his past academic achievements. When he was in the 2nd grade he was diagnosed with dyslexia which he says “kind of took a toll on me because I realized I was different from everyone else. It was hard for me to read and comprehend on my grade level, not because I was dumb but because it took a little more effort and time than others in order to fully understand and grasp the knowledge.”.
Albert had difficulties with math, as well, due to the dyslexia and says the disability also affected how he would read music notes, “which is why it took me so long to learn them. Unfortunately as a young child I didn’t understand this disability and I thought I was just going to be dumb and eventually I wanted to give up.” He says this led to him misbehaving at school (though he never misbehaved in his 9 years at Fanfare), since he had no interest in learning. Yet, he says,”I always had an interest in music since I was 4 years old and not once has my disability affected my passion for piano. For me, playing the piano was a way out of all the negative energy the world would throw at me. It was also something I could use to have family time because my family always loved to hear me play and sing along to some of the songs that I would play.”
Albert continues to say he was blessed with parents and grandparents who didn’t take no for an answer, who corrected his behavior and taught him how to have faith and believe in God, how to become a successful, responsible young man, standing by his side and helping him overcome his disability. “Soon after asking God for strength and continuously striving for excellence, my disability was a thing of the past. I started excelling in my classes… and then I realized I have a passion especially for math and science. I later graduated 8th grade with all A’s and B’s and was in the top five percentage of my class… a true blessing from God.”
For his high school years Albert attended O’Connell College Preparatory where the education standard was set at a high level. Albert says, “I entered with a very immature behavior” but he soon realized he “had to quickly hop aboard and buckle down in my academic studies.” By his Junior year he “realized that I needed to become more focused not only academically but behavior wise also because I needed to start planning what my future consists of as far as college and major.”
That year he received the highest grade in Algebra 2, won 2nd place for a vocational prayer contest, was announced as Student of the Week, received a medal at last year’s Galveston EdFest, and was declared an Ambassador for the school. He then became more involved throughout the community, volunteering and being a part of organizations in and out of school while also holding executive positions.
He also was motivated to focus much more on the piano study he had begun years earlier; and for his Senior year he received the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award at Fanfare! Lutheran Music Academy, having skipped six difficult levels of piano music just to achieve one of the biggest trophies given by the Galveston Federation Festival.
“And by the Grace of God I graduated from O’Connell College Preparatory in May 2018 with Honors and as the Senior Class Vice President; and I will be attending Texas Southern University majoring in Computer Engineering in the fall.”