The pastoral surroundings at the Bullis School bear little resemblance to the landscape at Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington. While Bullis sits adjacent to a golf course, Georgia Ave. is renowned for its liquor stores.
But those are the conflicting worlds of Ronald Kamdem, a D.C. resident and senior on the undefeated Bullis tennis team.
The tennis bubble at Bullis a long way from Cameroon, the African nation from where his family moved eight years ago. Tennis and education — not in that order — became Kamdem’s passions. He was awarded a scholarship to Bullis and four years later is set to attend Harvard.
“When I came here, it wasn’t scary. It was just different,” said Kamdem. “I loved meeting new people.”
Chalk up Kamdem’s success to hard work. But helping make it possible was the scholarship from the Urban Leadership Development Group, established 12 years ago by Bullis tennis coach Jack Schore and former tennis great Arthur Ashe.
“The idea was to identify potential leaders who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to go to a school like Bullis and give them a better chance to succeed,” said Schore.
Kamdem, who went 15-1 last year and is 5-2 this spring at No. 3 singles, is the second recipient of the scholarship. The first, D.C. resident Damissa Robinson, went on to play at Clemson University.
In his four years, Kamdem has inspired the Bullis community with his cheery personality and relentless work ethic.
“Ronald doesn’t like to eat because he says it takes too much of his time. He wants to use all of his time productively,” said Sara Fornaciari, whose son, Jack, played for Bullis. “He’s so focused on getting everything he can out of school.”
