DECEMBER 13, 1993 • BENNETT BANNER • 7
Student finds African American heritage, sisterhood at Bennett
Tammi McCall
Banner Reporter
Annettte Peatross
who was crowned as
Bennett’s Miss UNCF last
month has a secret - a se
cret she has kept from her
self.
Her heritage.
Peatross was reared
in a white neighborhood.
She was educated by whites
and her peers were all white.
Now, a student at
Bennett, she has been intro
duced to the black world.
"I needed to find sis
terhood and a strong foun
dation of my African Ameri
can heritage," Peatross said.
After being in limbo
from Rockingham Commu
nity College to the Ameri
can Career Training travel
school in Florida, Peatross
decided that she had no fu
ture without a four-year col
lege degree so she decided to
enroll at Bennett.
"I never knew how
much blacks had contrib
uted to America," she said.
She said that her
world had been surrounded
by the ideals of white Ameri
cans. Her math teacher at
Rockingham High School
had her believing that the
best thing for her was to
attend a two-year coUege.
So she decided to at
tend Rockingham Commu
nity College in Eden, her
hometown.
"I still felt empty,"
she said. "I needed more."
Peatross then moved
to Florida.
"She never thought
she had anything to look for
ward to and I couldn't un
derstand why, " said
Jacqueline Peatross,
Annette's old sister.
By the time Peatross
was 21, she had a two-year
degree from a community
college and a one-year de
gree from a travel school.
"Annette saw herself
in higher places," said
Geraldine Peatross,
Annette's mother. I encour
aged her, but I believe her
math teacher's message
tapped her conscience con
tinually," she said.
Peatross later real
ized that she had been mis
guided.
"I told her if she
wasn't feeling complete,
then she should enroll in a
black foiu’-year institution."
And she did.
Peatross began her
studies at Bennett major
ing in Mass Communica
tions, with a concentration
in broadcasting.
"I didn't realize how
much I missed out on,"
Peatross said.
She said that learn
ing about heritage in Afri
can American studies and
knowing her people has been
an eye-opening experience.
"When I met
Annette, she seemed to be a
stuck up, preppy kind of
valley girl," said Deanne
McLeod, a friend and fellow
student.
McLeod said that now
she realizes how she got that
impression. She added that a
person can tell by Peatross's
voice and attitude toward cer
tain types of people that she
wasn't reared with ablackfoun-
dation.
McLeod admits that
Peatross has come a long way.
"I know who I am now,
because ofBennett I know what
I want to do and I know where
I am going," Peatross said.
"Bennett has truly been
a stepping stone to a greater me."
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UNITED nfx;ro collf.gk fund
A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste.
■4^1 A Pubbc Service of
This PuOlicaiion
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