Sylvie Goldner, ‘21

May 2020

David Wiggins was the first person I met at BHSEC. After receiving my invitation for an interview, my 8th-grade-self nervously made its way into the BHSEC building. I was led to the art room where I sat in anticipation at a table with my mom. Suddenly, I heard a voice announce my name. I turned towards the doorway from my seat and all I saw were legs. As I began to stand up and reoriented my gaze, I realized the tall man was smiling at me, which immediately calmed my racing heart. After chatting with David for an hour, I fell in love with BHSEC. 

         Now, as I sit in my bedroom in the midst of the coronavirus, I’m the one interviewing David. I open up Zoom with the link to our meeting and suddenly, the same smiling face that I met that first time in 2016 radiates through the screen; but now it is also accompanied by a beard. David views my surprised expression and jokingly responds “The beard. I know. I’m just afraid that I’m going to mess up the shave.” We laugh together and David’s booming laughter fills up my entire room from a room far away. Once again, calming my nerves.

         While I considered asking David whether he would choose either to stop world hunger or enact world peace (the question he posed to me in our interview), I instead opted to ask questions more central to David’s life. David grew up far in the Bronx on Seton Avenue, and although he has a sister 13 years older than him, due to the large age discrepancy he mostly grew up alone. When I asked David what were some activities and sports he was involved in as a child, I was shocked to hear his answer, because anyone who knows David well pictures him exiting the womb with a basketball in hand. “Believe it or not, my first sport was football. When I was younger, I was not tall. I was actually always the shortest kid in my grade until 7th grade when I really started shooting up. By the time I entered 7th grade I was about 5’9’’ and it is funny because my teacher at the time was 5’10.’’ By the end of the year I was 5’11.’’ Once David reached 5’11’’,  the football field became short for him and basketball eagerly called him to the game. When I asked David what he loved so much about basketball, he paused for a moment and I could tell he was thinking deeply about his answer. After a moment, his face lit up: “I honestly just love being on the court. The attention. The cheering fans. I thought it was my moment to act silly. But as I got older and I started playing in different leagues and areas of New York, some of the kids I played with went professional to the NBA. When I was playing, Lamar Odom was playing for the high school team that was a rival to ours.” 

         David’s continued love for basketball is  surprisingly what brought him to BHSEC. “In 2015, I had a friend that I was playing basketball with and he knew the director of admissions, Quincee Robinson. He put me in touch with her because she needed help at the time. I met with Dr. Lerner and I started the job, though I was under the impression that it was going to be 2 months tops, only a temporary position. I told myself I was going to do the best job I could and then move on. At the time, my girlfriend had moved to France and I was planning to see her towards the end of my two months. Then unfortunately, ISIS happened and I could not go there. But instead I stayed at BHSEC and the staff ended up liking me. I saw myself getting more involved with the students: hanging out, helping around, joking a lot. And then I was offered a full time position.” If ISIS had not targeted France, David most likely would not have become a part of the BHSEC community, and I may have not come to BHSEC. A butterfly's flap of its wings. 

         When I asked David about his favorite aspect of working at BHSEC, he immediately said “Interacting with you all, the students. You all really bring light to the day and you make it worthwhile coming there. I have an hour and five minute commute, and what gets me out of bed each morning is thinking about all of you.” David loves the students and the BHSEC students love David. This is clear by just following David around the school building on any given day -- anywhere he goes, a flock of students always surrounds him, chatting and laughing. Although David is an incredibly outgoing individual, he did acknowledge that he was able to get out of something when the school semester in our building suddenly came to a halt. “There were students going around the building with buckets and you had to donate to make a nomination for which teacher/staff member you wanted to sing karaoke. For some reason, I was moving up in the ranks, and I wanted to get out of it. Unfortunately this coronavirus situation happened, but fortunately, I did not have to sing. So there is always a silver lining somewhere.”

         Most don’t know this about David, but he is a mechanic guru. When David was younger, he fixed and assembled bicycles. Even now, David explained that he can fix any broken bike. He then jumped into a story about his incredible mechanical skills, “I had an issue with my car the other day because it lost power. The person who came from Roadside Assistance couldn’t find the battery. He went to YouTube and it was hilarious. I have a specific car, so I asked him if he jump started one of these before and he said thousands of them. So I said okay, went inside, and gave him a few minutes. When I came back out he was still looking at YouTube. Eventually he said he could not do it as he had another job and will come back. I knew where one of the batteries was, but I did not want to get to it because it is a long process. Before he even got to the next job, I called him and told him I got to the battery, so he then came back and jumped the car. Funny enough, right afterwards my friend called me and pulled up to my house in his car because he needed help from me with an issue he was having.” 

         While David does have an incredible talent with his hands, BHSEC is incredibly lucky to have him, and towards the end of the interview he shared a story that exemplifies this. “Two years ago I had this one student and we went on a field trip together as I was chaperoning for Professor Edmonds’ class. Me and this one student are walking through this park, leading the pack, and he is talking to me. He is asking me a lot of questions about basketball, along with school basketball, and I’m noticing that he is really paying attention to what I’m saying. The following year, which was his senior year, he joined the school basketball team and he was REALLY good. Then the moment came that really got me to say, I’m truly invested in all of your learning and if I can offer any kind words and support I’m in. I’m sitting in the office and it is the final game day. He comes into my office and `asks me to help him with his tie. I was thinking to myself, he could have asked anybody to do that, but he came to me. I tied his tie for him and then I taught him how to do it.” David’s eyes began to fill with a few tears and at this moment I realized that in many ways David is the father of BHSEC. He is the guy you can go to when you need a joke, reassurance, a safe space to talk, or even your tie tied. No matter what, you will always leave your time with him smiling. I know at least I was when I exited the BHSEC building for my first time four years ago. 

 *David requested that I end the piece with this statement to the BHSEC students, “AND REMEMBER TO SIGN IN ON TIME!”