In the weeks before his death, 15-year-old Javits Frimpong filled a personal journal with reflections on his first year in the United States. The Ghanaian immigrant, who had marked roughly one year in New York the day before he was killed, described himself as shy while still figuring out who he was. He wrote that when someone begins to succeed, others may try to bring him down, and that his family had always motivated him not to ᴀssociate with “bad kids.” He called his family his treasure and the people who would help him when no one else would.

Education appeared repeatedly in the entries. He stated that he wanted to go far with school because education would allow him to earn money. He dreamed of becoming a physician and had strong grades from Ghana. He compared his Bronx school favorably with his earlier experience, noting that in Ghana students were sometimes beaten and placed in fear, which left many frustrated and unable to learn, whereas one mistake in the United States did not bring the same punishment. He also recalled enjoying reading books and exploring forests to see the beauty of nature back home.

Faith and family filled other pages. He viewed worshiping God as the most important thing and Christmas as a significant event because it marked the month Jesus was born. His sister Millicent later said he believed that once he was in America he would have a good life, that he was smart, wanted to help people, loved people, and cared for people. He kept to himself both in Ghana and in the Bronx. A modest amount of cash found in his room was money he had been saving to support friends’ education back in Ghana.

Those handwritten lines, shared by the family with reporters, offered a portrait of a reserved tenth grader who valued quiet progress, family support, and a future in medicine even as he navigated the differences between two educational systems and two countries. The entries stand in sharp contrast to the violence that ended his life on a Bronx sidewalk.