Local Providence teen shines

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - A local Providence teen has been named Providence Youth of Year, and is now heading to Brown University to begin his college career.

Straight-A student John Michael Goncalves is credited for his hard work in the classroom. Goncalves himself credits the local Boys and Girls Club.

Goncalves said it was his home away from the streets since he was five-years-old.

“I grew up in a bad neighborhood full of drugs and violence, and that was something I saw when I was a kid,” Goncalves said.

He now works with children in the same situation.

Nicole Dufresne, of the Boys and Girls Club of Providence, has watched Goncalves grow.

“He's actually been answering the phones since he was 14,” Dufresne said. “So, he's been a role model since he was a kid and still looking up to the people who worked here.”

As he begins his freshman year at Brown this Fall, Goncalves is now looking to the future.

“It may be politics, but wherever the road takes me I've definitely had the opportunity to expand my horizons and see what interests me," Goncalves said. "So that's what I'm going to do.”