Seventeen-year-old Victor Mattison Jr. is an anomaly.
A senior at Mauldin High, he is a hip-hop dance instructor who aspires to be an astrophysicist.
He knows the two — dance and astrophysics — are unrelated, and takes note that neither are normal for his demographic.
“You don’t find too many young Black males that are dancing. They’re typically playing sports or they’re doing something else,” he said. “You also typically don’t find many young Black males going into a STEM major, especially physics.”
Today, across all STEM fields, representation of Black Americans is lowest in physics and astronomy: ~3% in physics (down from more than 5% in 1999) and ~2% in astronomy, said a February 2020 article in Forbes that cites an American Institute of Physics.
“I’ve just never been a part of the normal nor have I really ever wanted to just be the average,” Mattison said.
Neither average nor normal are how the Rotary Club of Greenville describes the students it selects for its Service Above Self scholarship.
Mattison is the club’s ninth scholarship winner and the scholarship’s first Black male winner. He’s also the club’s “very first future astrophysicist,” said Judith Prince, co-chair of the club’s Service Above Self Selection Committee, in her presentation of Mattison.
The “Service Above Self” motto adopted by Rotary International, signifies the belief in duty to help others before one’s own needs.
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Mattison’s range of Service Above Self includes working with organizations to provide food for the hungry and supplying veterans with daycare packages, Prince said.
But the aspect that is most unique and impressive is how he combines the teaching of dance with mentoring, Prince said.
Mattison’s senior service project involved teaching dance routines to both children and adults.
He also works part-time afterschool at his family’ dance studio, T-Motion in Mauldin, where he not only teaches dance, but tutors children there as well.
One of the reasons he enjoys teaching dance as a service is because he’s witnessed its impact on peoples’ mental, as well physical wellbeing.
“Some people might go play basketball or they might go do something else to be that stress reliever but I feel like dance is universal because you’re exercising, which is like the number one way to relieve stress, and then you’re just having fun vibing to the music.”
Mattison was at home studying when he got the call announcing his Rotary Scholar honor. He went downstairs and put his phone on speaker so his dad, Victor Mattison Sr., could hear the call.
“I wasn’t as expressive as my dad. My dad literally like ran a lap around the house,” he said. “I was trying to hide my emotion while I was on the phone. But after I got off, me, my dad and my mom celebrated.”
The Service Above Self Scholarship is funded through Rotary Charities Inc., the 501(c)(3) affiliated with the club. The award is a renewable grant of up to $5,000 per year for 4 years for a total potential award of $20,000.
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Mattison said the funds will especially help his parents not worry about their financial situation, while making his own academic journey easier.
Mattison has been dancing since the age of 3. Service is a trait he also picked up as a child.
“That’s just something that my parents kind of instilled within me, that I’m a very blessed child,” he said. “I understand that and I know there are less (fortunate) people out there, so I like being able to give back.”
Mattison said he was 7 when he became fascinated with astronomy.
“I specifically remember riding in the car with my family one day and contemplating what ‘the whole wide world’ actually entails,” he said. “I began thinking of how wild it was that there was more space outside of the earth, and then I asked myself, ‘at what point does it end and is it even possible that it never ends?’ It opens up so many questions.”
Mattison’s goal is to “figure out answers to questions and to create additional questions that, when answered, will better our understanding of the cosmos.”
He will launch that goal this fall, when he becomes a freshman at Clemson University.
His hope is that his accomplishments, including that of being a Rotary Scholar, will motivate and inspire other youths by conveying that “you can do this” and “you can also be a part of this.”
“Don’t let this race thing stop you. Don’t let your age stop you,” he said. “Even when I was dancing, I was 3 and people were telling me I was too young. If you want change, be to change that you want to see.”
Everything that happens in his life, Mattison said he can apply to astrophysics in some way.
When you apply the astrophysics part to service, he said, it’s helping others and understanding that it’s bigger than you — the human race, the whole earth.
“Service Above Self is something I think we should all follow just to make the world an easier place.”