Photograph by Tony Lewis, Jr.
When Dylan Parks first started taking Spanish lessons in the seventh grade at Key School, he hated it. Parks, now a senior, struggled with how the language worked, particularly with conjugations. But to his surprise, two years later, Parks discovered that the more time he spent with the language, the more he enjoyed it.
“I decided going into my freshman year if I gave it attention, I would like it more,” says Parks, who has played soccer, tennis, and swims for Key School in Annapolis.
Parks, an Annapolis resident, ended up liking it so much that he spent a semester in Madrid in 2022. The six months he stayed there really sped up his learning curve and made him more comfortable with the language.
“I didn’t know Spanish very well,” Parks admits. “I just really had to lean into the foundation I had built. I would spend hours and hours speaking to people in Spanish. By the time I had finished, my Spanish had improved exponentially.”
When Parks returned home for junior year, he ended up tutoring Key junior and senior students in Spanish.
Parks also volunteered as a Spanish interpreter for the Anne Arundel County Food Bank and Annapolis’ Center for Help (Centro de Ayuda), which assist immigrants and residents to overcome challenges, navigate public systems, and achieve self-sufficiency. Parks helped them with English reading and comprehension lessons for non-native speakers, including children. This all fits in with his long-term career plans to become an immigration lawyer.
“It can be very difficult coming to a new country,” Parks explains. “Sometimes, they don’t have the same family structure, like mine. Another reason I like doing work with immigrant families: you can get a world perspective. I find it really important.”
Parks will continue to study Spanish in college with an eye on his career goal. He has applied to a whopping 15 colleges, including Duke, Wake Forest, and Vanderbilt universities. He carries a weighted 4.0 grade-point average. Parks may play soccer in college depending on what school he decides to attend.
“He is ridiculously smart, but works harder than everybody else,” Key Athletic Director Brian Boyd says. “Then, on top of that, he is genuinely a really nice person. Whatever he wants to do, he is going to throw himself into it. He is going to will himself to be very good at it.”
Parks’ hard work made him a standout soccer player in high school and year-round at the club level. The 17-year-old’s best experience came when he competed for a Spanish Youth National League Soccer team overseas.
Back in Maryland, after playing two years for Liverpool Football Club International Academy, Parks, a defender, joined the National Level Soccer Club in 2023 in Baltimore to help his game blossom.
“The training level is immense,” Parks says of NLSC. “It’s higher than anything I’ve done.”
NLSC Coach Rafik Kechrid loves what Parks has brought to his team. “He is a disciplined player and communication is a real strength for him,” Kechrid says. “He is a starter for us and has been very impactful in a short period of time.”
Parks showed off his skills for Key, too, starting for four years and serving as co-captain as a senior. He earned Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association honors as both a junior and senior.
As a junior, Parks also co-captained the junior varsity tennis team while playing No. 1 singles for a squad that won the MIAA C Conference Championship. He also formed a doubles team on the B Conference-winning varsity later in the season.
“His smarts make him a good athlete,” Boyd says. “He is also a gym rat. He works for hours and hours. He is not a big kid, or an imposing kid, but in soccer he can dominate the middle of the field. He knows where to be all the time.”
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