精东影业

Raynard Johnson鈥檚 鈥�21 journey began as a senior at Southwest High School in Atlanta when a Boston College recruiter visited the school and encouraged him to apply.

鈥淚 knew I wanted to go into computers,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 had a good aptitude for math, but I didn鈥檛 want to go into engineering. I wanted to concentrate on business and technology and 精东影业 was one of the few schools that offered computer science in their business school.鈥� Johnson applied, was admitted, and headed up to Boston in 1977.

鈥淚 had never been to Boston, all I knew about it was what I saw on TV when they integrated the schools,鈥� he says, referring to violent battles over court-ordered school 鈥渂using鈥� in Boston during the mid-1970s. The transition from his predominantly Black community in Atlanta to the then-overwhelmingly white Chestnut Hill campus was rocky to say the least. 鈥淚 thought, what the heck did I get myself into? I had never seen so many white people in all the days of my life,鈥� he recalls. (Today, 42 percent of Boston College鈥檚 2025 entering class is made up of AHANA students.)

In his senior year, he was short a couple of courses but decided to head home to Atlanta without continuing further and finishing his degree. 鈥淚 had a younger sister in college so I didn鈥檛 want to make my parents pay for two schools,鈥� he says, adding that he was also ready to move on from Boston College.

When he arrived home, he received a call from a headhunter in New York and quickly secured a position as a programmer with the Federal Reserve Bank. He had met the headhunter鈥檚 brother in Boston when he was hitchhiking from campus back to his apartment on Commonwealth Ave. after class. The driver passed along Johnson鈥檚 information to his brother and he got a call for an interview when he returned home. His career took off from there and he鈥檚 been working in technology and project management for a variety of companies such as UPS, Cox Communications, BellSouth, and Ernst & Young.聽

In 2013 he ran for the Atlanta Board of Education. That campaign, which he ultimately lost in a runoff election, sparked his interest in finishing that degree he started way back in 1977. 鈥淚 wanted to say I graduated from Boston College, not just attended,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd if you鈥檙e running for the school board it鈥檚 nice to have a college degree behind your name.鈥� Johnson took two courses online at Morehouse College during the pandemic and transferred the credits to his Boston College degree.聽

While he鈥檚 been keeping up with the many changes to campus by checking in on the Boston College webcams, his trip to Boston for the commencement was the first time he鈥檚 been back since he left in 1981. When asked earlier if he was certain he would travel during the pandemic, he didn鈥檛 pause in answering: 鈥淗ell, yes! I will be in attendance on May 24.鈥� (His 89-year-old father wanted to be there, but Johnson felt there were too many campus stairs for him to climb, so the elder Johnson watched the ceremony online.)

As an official Boston College graduate, Johnson says he plans to run for the school board again to help make Wi-Fi a public utility and bring Internet access to all Atlanta school children鈥攕omething lacking during the pandemic, resulting in many students falling behind.

And this time around, 鈥淚鈥檓 looking forward to the support of my fellow 精东影业 alumni,鈥� he says.聽

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