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Student Heroes: Swimming Champion Helps Students Of Detroit

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP (WWJ) -- For every athlete in any sport, the dream is to win a championship. But to win one in back-to-back seasons to finish off your junior and senior year of high school -- only after coming up just short in your sophomore season -- seems like the plot to a movie.

Except for Cranbrook Kingswood High School swimmer Alessandro Guttilla.

"We had lost by four points my sophomore year, so basically everyone when we came back last year we were all really fired up about getting a championship and it was just like a great fulfillment to finally reach it and say that we were the first team," Guttilla said.

On top of being on the first team to win a championship at the school, Gutilla is also involved in the Horizons Upward Bound program (HUB), which focuses on low-income students in the worst performing schools in Detroit that have potential but not the means to achieve it.

Alessandro Guttilla
Alessandro Guttilla

Dr. Darryl Taylor, director of the program, says that Alessandro has been invaluable.

"He is a perfect example of a kid going to an elite, affluent school but stepping out of that image to really help others who are in need of help," Taylor said.

Upon graduation next month, Alessandro will take his 3.8 GPA and his swimming talents to Washington University in St. Louis and plans to focus on Ceramics while studying there after receiving a Scholastics National gold medal this year.

"Well I do enjoy cars a lot, but the main thing that I do is that I do ceramics a lot," Guttilla said. "I actually have a pottery wheel in my own house and I also come into the studio that we have here on campus a lot. It's just been a great supplement, basically, a creative supplement to my life. I really enjoy it and I hope to able to do it in college."

Congratulations Alessandro Gutilla, you're truly, a Student Hero!

WWJ Newsradio 950 will run a weekly Student Hero feature. If you know someone who could be labeled a student hero and would like to nominate them for consideration, email us at wwjnewsradio@gmail.com.

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