At Watkins Mill High School, senior Leland Kraatz excels as an honors student and member of the National Honor Society.
It takes an education and guidance that begins in early childhood to reach that level of academic excellence in high school.
But unlike his peers, Leland Kraatz only had two years to get there.
Leland, 17, of Montgomery Village, was one of five Washington-area students awarded with the Beat the Odds scholarship from the Children’s Defense Fund, which honors students who have overcome difficult circumstances to exceed academically and socially.
Leland grew up in Crownsville with an alcoholic father who abused his two older sisters and a mother who barred him and his sisters from attending public school, according to the fund.
The first time Leland attended public school was in 2009.
But even after their father left the family when Leland’s mother learned of the abuse, life was far from perfect.
A single mother, Leland’s mom worked as a pizza delivery driver, and continued to home-school her children. But the job left her with little time and energy, and the children received less education than they would have in public school, according to the defense fund.
From what should have been his sixth through ninth grades of school, Leland spent most of his time watching movies, playing video games and sleeping in.
“I was heading into nothing,” he said.
Word of the difficulties made it to the family’s local church, and eventually Child Protective Services removed the children from the household.
When Montgomery Village residents Mike and Beth Kraatz were approached to see if they were willing to take in Leland and his sisters, there was no hesitation to welcome them in August 2009.
After a nearly four-year period dominated by sleeping in, playing video games and watching movies with little to no parental supervision, the siblings relished having structure and stability.
“When I came here, I saw how my aunt and uncle lived,” he said. “It was the first time I saw how a family was supposed to function.”
With Emily Kraatz off to community college to get the high school education she never received, Leland and Chelsea Kraatz started attending school for the first time at Watkins Mill that fall. Days were spent in the classroom and the evenings at home working with Mike and Beth to make up for lost time.
“They wanted to learn and they were desperate to learn,” Beth Kraatz said.
The desire to learn was what fueled Leland to earn six ‘A’s and one ‘B’ on his first report card, and straight ‘A’s since. He also found time to compete on the high school wrestling team, volunteer at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg and tutor students in biology and chemistry.
“I think there's no better kid in the world to win [the scholarship],” Emily Kraatz said.
Today, Leland has no contact with his father. Contact with his mother is minimal, but he hopes it will improve over time. He has applied to college and hopes to hear back from the University of Maryland, College Park — his first choice — by Christmas. Whatever college he attends next year, he will major in computer engineering.
Emily and Chelsea, who herself earned the same scholarship last year, are students at Hood College in Frederick.
The future for the young man who believed he was heading into nothing a few years ago has changed.
“He’s not looking back,” Beth Kraatz said. “He’s going forward.”
nnourmohammadi@gazette.net
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