Brother of murder victim to give Westinghouse valedictory address
‘He is our role model,’ school principal says
Jeremiah Nash’s favorite photo is the last one he took with his older brother, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey had treated his younger brothers, twins Jeremiah and Joshua, to a birthday steak dinner in December. In the photo, Jeffrey stands between his younger siblings, arms draped around their necks.
Eight days later, Jeffrey was found inside a burning car with a bullet wound in his head.
On Saturday, Jeremiah will deliver the valedictory address for Westinghouse Academy in Homewood.
“We’ve all been touched by it,” said Marc Stern, an Advanced Placement Literature teacher at Westinghouse, who had Jeremiah in his class senior year. “The way he handled, the way he confronted [his brother’s death] taught me. It made me a real believer in him. He’s my hero.”
The three Nash brothers were close but very different from each other. Jeremiah, a hard worker, always liked school. Joshua was quite the opposite, according to his twin. And Jeffrey, a Woodland Hills graduate, dropped out of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
“He was a fly guy. I got my
fashion tips from him,” Jeremiah said. They had a strong relationship.
Jeffrey was “kind of rude,” Jeremiah said. “I don’t like getting talked back to. He didn’t either.”
The three got in trouble together, too, once totaling their father’s new car.
Jeremiah, of East Hills, said he always wanted to write his college application essay about his brothers. He had initially planned to submit the application early, but when the Nov. 1 deadline rolled around, he didn’t have the right words for the essay. So he waited.
“The next thing you know, my brother was shot, and that was the missing part,” Jeremiah said.
He was offered a full-ride scholarship from Bucknell University in central Pennsylvania, and he also got accepted, without a scholarship, to his dream school, Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Hoping he would receive financial aid, Jeremiah put a deposit down for Morehouse, his clear first choice.
“What separates Jeremiah from all the other students is that he’s a seeker: He doesn’t settle,” Mr. Stern said.
Weeks after the decision deadline, Jeremiah said he still had not confirmed he would receive financial aid from Morehouse, so he called the school to ask for his deposit back. His mind was now set on Bucknell, to which he had also made a deposit. But to his surprise, Morehouse told him he would receive $20,000 a year.
A two-year captain of the Westinghouse football team, Jeremiah plans to walk on to the Morehouse team. He was also a senior captain of the Westinghouse wrestling team, winning the city wrestling championship and advancing to the regional semifinals as a senior.
Students and administrators said they see the 17year-old as a community leader, outside of the classroom and off the field.
“When you need a student’s voice, his name is one of the first to come to mind,” said Westinghouse principal Bernard Taylor. “He is our role model.”
Nominated by students and teachers, Jeremiah was Westinghouse’s only representative on the district’s student advisory council. He was also a member of Westinghouse’s Student Envoy Project, a leadership program.
“The biggest lesson is what he’s done for other students outside of the classroom,” said Sean Means, a history teacher at Westinghouse, who taught Jeremiah as a freshman, junior and senior.
When the Student Envoy team was considering giving $250 it had raised at a bake sale to the senior class, Jeremiah suggested donating it instead to a youth football league. Other students got behind the idea, and the money went to the league, said Chelice Newpher, a chemistry teacher at Westinghouse.
Despite Jeremiah’s feats, Mr. Stern said, “he carries himself with a quiet dignity. … There’s not a conceited bone in his body.”
As of Friday afternoon, Jeremiah had not finished writing his valedictory speech. But he said he is planning to put together a slideshow.
It will freeze on the last photo, the one with his brothers on his birthday.