Tariq Brathwaite

Creative Writing, with English Prof. Andre Dubus III, was Tariq Brathwaite’s favorite course. So when Dubus needed to reschedule a discussion session and move it to Zoom, Brathwaite didn’t want to miss it — even though it conflicted with his work schedule at LCB Senior Living in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

“I told everyone at work, ‘I’ve already done everything. I’m going to be in my car to do a class for an hour. I’ll be right back,’” says Brathwaite, who apologized to his classmates if his voice sounded funny when he logged on to Zoom.

“He said he’d been up since 2 in the morning, working one of his four jobs,” Dubus recalls. “Here he is, with three hours sleep, on his phone in his car, dispensing great insight and beauty to us all.”

Dubus recounted the episode while receiving the Honors College’s 2024 Jacqueline F. Moloney Founder Award, which recognizes a faculty member who demonstrates unwavering support for student success and lifelong learning. The award includes a scholarship for the honoree to give to a student; Dubus chose Brathwaite, “a gifted writer with a work ethic that is deep and wide and will take him far.”

“I didn’t expect it. I thank Andre dearly for that,” says Brathwaite, an English major with a concentration in creative writing.

A first-generation college student from Lowell, Brathwaite remembers seeing the UMass Lowell campus as a child when his grandmother, Lorna, would take him grocery shopping at Market Basket.

“She kept saying, ‘You’re going to be here one day,’ and I was like, ‘Really? With all these big kids?’ I was only 8 years old, and I didn’t know anything about college,” he says.

Around that time, Brathwaite began drawing superheroes — and creating some of his own. As a youngster undergoing speech therapy, he found drawing the characters to be a helpful way to express himself.

“I’ve always liked the morality system of superheroes. It’s not just entertainment; it can teach you something,” says Brathwaite, who began writing storylines for his characters while attending Greater Lowell Technical High School, where he focused on engineering.

Brathwaite enrolled at Middlesex Community College, with dreams of transferring to UML through the MassTransfer program. At MCC, English Prof. Tom Laughlin stoked his passion for creative writing by helping him see that “writing stories is a way to connect people and bring them together around an idea.” 

Brathwaite was elated when he was accepted to UML — although his parents, Christopher and Angela, were worried about whether he could afford it. 

“That’s why I work four jobs,” he told them. “It’s good to see what I can do.”

In addition to his part-time maintenance role at LBC, where he started as a volunteer in high school, Brathwaite works part-time at a local gym. He also tutors youngsters in English and helps out at his uncle’s bar. He learned his work ethic, he says, from his parents, who had to “bust their butts to raise three kids.”

Brathwaite’s goal is to become an English teacher, and he “can’t wait” to have his own classroom someday, perhaps at Greater Lowell Tech. 

“I want to teach creative writing because everyone has a creative side, but I don’t really see that from this generation,” says Brathwaite, who suspects that tech addiction may be a culprit. “You don’t have to be a writer, but you can do something with your creativity.” 

To that end, Brathwaite looks forward to developing his superhero character (he’s keeping the identity secret for now) in stories that he writes in Creative Writing II with Dubus during his senior year. 

“If my character could actually be published in Marvel one day, that would be kind of wild,” Brathwaite says.