Trey Baker, a 2021 graduate of Mundelein High School is making a change for the world at age 22. Baker’s resume speaks for itself: a special advisor for the Obama Foundation, children’s book author with Scholastic, two time Emmy award winner, spoken word artist for the Seattle Storm. Baker is busy at not only working towards success for himself but helping others become successful in their own way.
The achievements of Baker are not something that you just look past. Baker continues to add goals to his future to help make an impact in the best way possible. Baker says “My goal is to use the power of storytelling to leverage school communities, a broader society, and to ultimately impact change.”
Baker believes storytelling can be used to change outcomes for students and bring everyone together. Storytelling creates an opportunity for people to feel emotions that we need as humans.
Inspiring others is something Baker has passion for. Creating sacred places or private areas for people to hear, see, and understand each other is Baker’s start for inspiration. With this, a strategy he uses in mentorship is trying to create spaces where people from different perspectives and backgrounds can come together and share their stories. “One of the issues that I see in our world is that we are very quick to make assumptions; we are very quick to rule out somebody for reasons in which we may not know who they are,” Baker reckons.
A significant portion of Baker’s own motivation comes from his desire to make his family proud and to represent his last name. He uses this motivation to become his best self and to try and find joy from the little things. The people who saw things in him that he couldn’t find in himself, that mentored him through the struggles of managing basketball and his passion in social justice is why he keeps going. “When you’re facing adversity, when you’re facing a roadblock, go back to why you’re doing it,” is Baker’s advice to people struggling to find motivation for themselves.
Baker feels people get too caught up in the little things and try to find instant success which is really what brings them down. Staying on the path to success and not skipping any steps is key to an accomplished life so you don’t miss things that will matter in the long run. Baker believes that comparison can lead to failure. Instead, he emphasizes the importance of self-confidence. These principles, according to Baker, are key steps to motivation and achievement.
The definition of leadership in Baker’s eyes is someone who uses the influence they have and the ability of their example to lead others. A leader doesn’t focus on themselves but focuses on what they can do for others to help gain more success.
Pressure is not something new for Baker as he has dealt with it since the start of high school as a student athlete. Trey remarked “I really try to take care of myself, there can be a lot of anxiety with doing a lot of things at one time. I think it is important that we focus on taking time to take care of ourselves,” Baker’s strategy towards pressure is something that he would suggest people take on.
With that being said Baker believes it is super important for students to get involved in as much as possible. While trying to do a bunch of activities is great, challenging yourself but also making things manageable is necessary. Baker suggests that trying a variety of things is crucial as he never thought while being a basketball player he could have as many opportunities for things such as a children’s book author.
