May 16, 2025
Altoona Area High School junior Nakia Curtiss Jr. (right), seen with his mother, Bridget Rodgers, has earned a $3,000 scholarship to Penn State Altoona from the Pennsylvania Association of Housing and Redevelopment Agencies. Curtiss plans to major in software engineering. Mirror photo by William Kibler
An Altoona Area High School junior who lives in subsidized accommodations administered by the Altoona Housing Authority recently earned a $3,000 scholarship to Penn State Altoona from the Pennsylvania Association of Housing and Redevelopment Agencies.
Nakia Curtiss Jr., 17, plans to major in software engineering, he said at an authority meeting this week, where he was recognized for having earned the scholarship, the top one awarded to students by PAHRA.
Nakia has been a technology enthusiast since he was little, he told the board. He plays video games, takes computer programming at the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center and would eventually like to own a computer repair and instruction business, while also designing video games.
Maybe he’ll make the 50th edition of “Call of Duty,” suggested his mother, Bridget Rodgers.
Rodgers is her son’s chief advocate, urging him to excel in school, to go after scholarships and internships and to “be the best.”
Her own father frequently told her that “education is power,” she said.
She encourages Nakia “to push through” issues that include race-based judgments.
She wants him to “be as good as the next person,” to not be seen based on his color, but based on his education and his brainpower, she said.
She’s pleased he’s in line to go to college on schedule — right after high school graduation.
Giving in to the temptation to relax for a few years after high school before focusing on preparations for one’s life’s work carries the risk of ending up with many years of otherwise unnecessary struggle, Nakia said.
Rodgers doesn’t want her son to model the arc of his educational life on hers — although she is now well on her way, finally, to getting her college degree.
She’s been taking online courses and has an associates degree in education, with plans to get her bachelor’s in education or psychology from Penn State.
That would prepare her to work as a behavioral tech in school, observing and assessing special education students.
She came to Altoona six years ago from Passaic County, N.J., where she worked in home care.
Starting as a special education aide, she has moved up to become a support professional at Pleasant Valley Elementary School.
“I’ve evolved,” she said.
She likes it here.
“It’s quiet, low-crime, compared to where I’m from,” she said.
“You did a wonderful job” (on the scholarship application), said the authority’s Deputy Executive Director Brad Kanuch to Nakia. “I look forward to seeing what the future holds.”
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.
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