Mother in jail, Camden student vows 'no choice but to succeed'
Jamil Miller, 23, of Camden, overcame personal obstacles to graduate last month from Rowan University. His mother, who missed his high school graduation because she was in prison, was there to see him pick up his degree. Miller plans to pursue his dream to become a cardiologist.
When Jamil Miller graduated from Camden's Dr. Charles E. Brimm Medical Arts High School, surrogates stood in for his mother while she served a prison sentence for robbery.
Five years later, his mother was there to see Miller graduate last month from Rowan University. It was a promise she vowed to keep and an education step he was determined to take, to pursue his dreams of being a cardiologist.
The journey was a triumph over formidable obstacles for mother and son. As a young black man growing up in Camden, Jamil Miller could have easily become another statistic, like too many of his peers in a city where only about 70 percent of the public school students graduate from high school.
Instead, Miller beat the odds last month. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Rowan and completed a five-year pre-med program. Next up: a summer internship at Cooper Medical School of Rowan and work on a master's degree in biomedical science at Rowan in the fall.
"I worked hard to get there," Miller said. "I struggled and didn't always have the support I needed."
Miller and his best friend since fourth grade, Kevin Ruiz, were featured in the Inquirer when they graduated from Brimm in 2012, Miller finishing second in the class. Inseparable since elementary school, the friends helped each other through tough times, challenging each other to excel academically and make it to college.
They were encouraged by mentors from the Camden school system: Deputy Superintendent Reuben Mills and health teacher Karen Borrelli. Both invested time and money, if needed, to get them to high school graduation.
The friends parted ways to pursue different career choices. Their fates, once so closely intertwined, took different paths, with Miller enrolling in Rowan and Ruiz heading to Rutgers-Camden. Neither knew how he would pay for college.
Miller thrived at Rowan's Glassboro campus, where he easily made friends. He was focused on his education and seemed wise beyond his years, said Israel Laguer, a counselor and assistant director for the EOF/RISE program at Rowan.
"It was amazing to see him grow and thrive," said Laguer. "He took it very seriously,"
Over the years, Miller remained in constant touch with Borrelli and Mills. Fiercely independent, Miller worked at Foot Locker in Cherry Hill while going to school full-time. He asked for their help as a last resort – housing, transportation, money.
"He made it seem so easy. Even when the world was falling apart around him, you probably wouldn't know it," said Mills, who spoke to Miller bi-weekly and would meet him in Cherry Hill for lunch on Saturdays. "He never missed a beat."
Miller also exchanged letters and phone calls with his mother, Jamilah, who was serving a seven-year sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, N.J., for robbery. She encouraged her son to get an education; when he was a sophomore at Brimm, she asked Mills and Borrelli to look after him as she faced time in prison. She also has an older son, Preston.
"It still hurts me to this day that I wasn't there to be there when he needed me the most," said Jamilah Miller, 45. "I'm just glad that he never held it against me."
Before she was sent to prison along with her then-boyfriend for robbing a store, Jamilah Miller asked Borrelli "to look after my baby." Borrelli took the role to heart, enlisting help from Mills when she needed additional support. "I couldn't let him down," she said. "There was nobody else."
At every turn, there were obstacles for Miller. Every semester there was uncertainty about his financial aid. Or where Miller would live during summer break. His maternal grandmother, who took him in when his mother was sent to prison in 2009, evicted him at the end of his freshman year in college.
"I had no place to go. I bounced around trying to find some place to lay my head," Miller said.
He spent summer months sleeping on friends' sofas until a stranger, a retired nurse, heard about his plight and offered him an apartment free of charge in Camden, with the only condition that he accomplish his dream of becoming a doctor. Borrelli, whom Miller called his second mother, gave him a used car — first a 2001 Chevy Cavalier and later a 2005 Dodge Neon — to get back and forth to campus.
Miller said determination and a strong network of supporters sustained him through tough times. He enjoys a special bond with Mills after following in his footstep and joining Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Rowan. Mills left the Camden district in 2013 but continued to mentor Miller and Ruiz, and other black and Latino males in the city's schools.
"I didn't have a father figure," Miller said. His father died in a car crash when Miller was 5.
Ruiz, who was pursuing a major in political science and had planned to get a law degree, withdrew after his freshman year. He transferred to Camden County College but left in 2016, largely because of financial and personal problems. Mills is trying to get Ruiz back in school soon. Ruiz works full-time as a T-Mobile sales rep.
"I'm still trying to figure it out," Ruiz, 23, said Thursday. "I'm very proud of Jamil and what he's doing."
Miller, meanwhile, has become a poster child for Camden's "College Bound Campaign." Miller remains involved with the Chowhound House at Brimm, a food bank that helps local residents feed and care for their pets. Miller and Ruiz started the nonprofit while students after learning in Borrelli's class about animal cruelty. Miller was scheduled to address Camden's seniors Thursday night.
"Throughout my journey, I have grown into a man who has overcome setbacks and negativity in order to achieve the seemingly impossible," Miller wrote in his remarks. "Failure is just a state of mind. I have no choice but to succeed."
The district produced a video last year on Miller's journey. He speaks openly about what he describes as the "traumatic experience" of growing up without his mother during her incarceration. He was 15 when she left to "run an errand." He later learned she was in prison.
"It was like, wow. My mother isn't here for me. What am I going to do?" Miller said.
His mother was released from prison in 2014 and sent to a halfway house. She returned home to Camden last fall. She has worked to rebuild her relationship with her sons. She made a big step with Jamil when she attended his Rowan graduation on May 11 along with his uncle. Borrelli was also there, and said she cried like a baby. Mills was out of the country at a wedding.
"I told him wild horses couldn't keep me away," Jamilah Miller said with a laugh. "I love him."
Said Jamil: "It was a milestone in my life, and I was glad she could be there."
Miller said he hopes his story will inspire other Camden youngsters to strive to overcome similar situations. His mother, a waitress at a Cherry Hill restaurant, said she hopes others will learn from her poor decisions. "It will never happen again."
Miller said he hopes to one day set up a medical practice in Camden.
"I'm just grateful for everything. I want to be that person who goes above and beyond to help people," he said.