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Mark McGinnis: "A person from the inner city attending a public school can make it out as long as they put their mind to it." (Photo by Martin Vecchio)
This freshly commissioned Army second lieutenant has come a long way from his Detroit upbringing -- geographically and in other ways.
Renaissance High alumnus Mark McGinnis ('12) is in Beijing, China, working toward a master's degree in global affairs and economics on a full scholarship at Tsinghua University. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point last May as a regimental commander who led 1,100 cadets.
Mark McGinnis is earning a master's degree in China's capital.
This inspiring 22-year-old, who envisions a career in government, was raised as the oldest of three children by a single mother, according to a profile by freelance writer Lisa Hook of Rochester. He gained inspiration and experience during high school in Junior ROTC and at in the nonprofit Midnight Golf Program, a mentoring venture based in Bingham Farms that blends sport lessons with a focus on life skills.
He also got a taste of public service as a U.S. House page for seven months in 2010-11.
As an Army officer and overseas scholar, he tells Hook, McGinnis wants "to show the people back home that a person from the inner city attending a public school can make it out as long as they put their mind to it."
This confident, focused man on the rise made a strong impression on Renaissance schoolmates, judging by reactions to a Deadline Detroit tweet with four photos of the achiever as part of a #DetroitLooksLikeThis series. It earns more than 50 retweets and 80 "likes" in three days. These are among comments:
- "He was in my JROTC class in high school this was his calling from God." -- @Gblood13
- "Yes, young black king!" -- @FinessedByBritt
- "Okay Mark!" -- @Timberlee, with hands clapping emoji
- "I had the biggest crush on him freshman year in ROTC." -- Kyla Wright
The second lieutenant poses at Detroit RiverWalk last spring. (Photo by Martin Vecchio)
For a recent college graduate, McGinnis has an especially impressive LinkedIn page. He lists summer internships at the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md., and the federal Securities and Exchange Commission office in Manhattan. It also says he speaks Spanish and German.
At the military academy, he majored in management and environmental engineering.
Now McGinnis is in the second class of Schwarzman Scholars, who get full tuition, travel expenses, lodging, a laptop and phone, health insurance and $3,500. The program, named for executive Stephen A. Schwarzman (who started it with $100 million), says it's for "the world's best and brightest students" and is "designed to prepare the next generation of global leaders."
The grad student from Detroit was interviewed two months ago by Frank Tang of the South China Morning Post, who writes:
"China is growing. I need to know what’s going on there," McGinnis said of his decision to join the Schwarzman Scholars in Beijing.
"The best way to do that is to be fully immersed in the area . . . by talking to people here. . . . We really learn from just talking and having dialogues."
With McGinnis are 125 similarly ambitious students from 26 countries, nearly half of them from the U.S. and a fifth from China. After extensive contact with all walks of Chinese life, they are expected to serve as a future foreign bridge to China in terms of politics, business and culture.
The program is modeled on the Rhodes Scholarship at Britain’s Oxford University.
The paper's headline mentions an ultimate career goal that McGinnis isn't shy about voicing: "Why an aspiring U.S. secretary of state chose to study in Beijing."
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