Tom Kijrattanakarn '21 Recruiting Profile

Hi!, My name is Poomrapee Kijrattanakarn but you can call me Tom. I am from Thailand, a beautiful country in Southeast Asia. I am 19 years old, but I am a junior at Voyage Academy High School. Three years ago, I came to America and I was very lucky to get accepted by The Voyager Academy High School. My parents decided to put me back in 9th grade to strengthen my academic English because English is not my first language.

My favorite subjects are Math and PE. While I am struggling with English, I have to study Spanish, science classes, social study classes, and the same English language classes as regular American students. I have worked very hard to keep my 3.0 GPA.

I love swimming. When I was seven years old I started to swim. Swimming helped me with my ADHD symptoms. I made a life long friend on my first swim team. I had a chance to join The Voyager High School swim team. Breaststroke and freestyle are my favorite strokes. I am the shortest person on the team, but I am faster than most of the team. I am a persistent hard-worker type. I also play lacrosse in Spring and run cross-country in Fall. Both sports are helping me to gain my strength and stamina in swimming.

In my free time, I work at Papa John's pizza on weekends and am a lifeguard at the YMCA Downtown Durham. I have learned a lot from working these 2 jobs. Education is very important for my future. I am looking forward to opening doors of opportunity by joining a college swimming team and enroll in college. I want to make my parents proud of me.