Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / May 20, 2021, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
A2 May 20, 2021 The Chronicle W-S native named valedictorian at N.C. State BY TIMOTHY RAMSEY THE CHRONICLE Amira Watson takes her education very seri ously. The future dentist just graduated from N.C. State at the top of her class as valedictorian with a 4.0 grade point average. Born in Winston-Sa lem and raised in Kerner sville, Watson is a 2017 graduate of East Forsyth. She was raised by her par ents to believe that educa tion is key, and that focus has been in her family for generations, “ft was definitely in grained in me, I believe,” Watson said about her drive for excellence in the classroom. “I wasn’t a first gen college student. My grandfather went to Alabama State, my mother went to Winston-Salem State, and so did my dad. Education has always been super important. “Going to school and getting a good education with good grades has al ways been important in the household.” Heading into college, Watson knew she wanted to be a dentist; it was just a matter of what her ma jor was going to be. She decided on biological sci ences due to it being some-, thing she enjoyed, as well as having all of her prereq uisite courses needed for dental school. Watson built good study habits in high school that made the transition to college level work a little easier. She says maintain ing a perfect GPA was not an easy task and recalls a tough time she had her freshman year when she earned a D on a test. Be cause she had built such a strong foundation for years in high school, she was able to bounce back and Submitted photo Amira Watson was named the valedictorian of the spring 2021 graduating class ofN.C. State. maintain her A average. “I was a Goodnight Scholar, which is one of two N.C. State’s full rides, so I knew that I had some thing to uphold in terms of GPA and academic stand ing, but also it was really important for me to get good grades,” she said. “I didn’t want to stop what I started in high school. “It wasn’t always a breeze, but hard work and dedication pays off. I had study groups, good friends, and a good village while I was at N.C. State was really important to my success.” Upon finding out she had earned the title of vale dictorian, Watson stated she felt like all of her hard work had paid off. “I was definitely excit ed,” she said. “They rank you after each semester and I knew that if I got all As my final semester, that I would be locked in. I knew that I could do it and a lot of my friends asked me if it was worth it and it definitely was because that was my goal coming into college.” Watson had to also maintain her perfect aver age during the pandemic. She also had to endure the loss of her mother at the beginning of the COV- ID-19 pandemic. With all of that to deal with, many students would have let their grades slip, but Wat son maintained her focus and persevered through the traumatic time. Watson was accepted into dental school in De cember of last year. She said many of her friends asked if she would cruise during her last semester. She chose to not relax. “I needed to finish what I started, and I want ed to go ahead and get that win for myself and achieve that goal,” she said, “ft definitely was a sigh of re lief and I hope to continue a good pattern of grades when I get to dental school too. It was definitely a re lief that all my hard work had paid off and that I was going to get the recogni tion that I wanted.” As an African Ameri can woman, Watson felt it was more important for her to earn this distinction as valedictorian so others who look like her see that it is possible. “I am so big on repre sentation; representation definitely matters,” she went on to say. “You want to see people who look like you, doing the things you want to do. There’s a vale dictorian of every college and major, but I’ve never known one to be Black, so that was something huge for me. “I felt like I was mak ing a really huge impact on my peers and some of my friends that it could defi nitely be done, especially in a STEM major. That’s pretty impressive and it was a big win for me, but it really felt like a big win for everyone, because I was Black. It made me re ally proud.” Watson says she hopes she was able to inspire someone else with what she was able to accom plish. One of her goals in life has been to help others in any way she can. “That’s my number one goal; I always want to do stuff for other people, whether that’s simple in spiration or some sort of service,” she continued. “I am a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority In corporated. I am a fall ‘19 initiate of the Kappa Omi- cron chapter ofN.C. State, so service is huge to me and I always want to make some sort of community impact. “The women of Alpha Kappa Alpha have defi nitely had a huge impact on me, so knowing that I am a part of the organiza tion now and that I have that impact on younger girls is something that is huge for me and makes me proud. It’s an amazing feeling and I really don’t have words for it.” The Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) for the Winston-Salem Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WSMI’O) serves as a forum for cooperative transportation planning and deci sion-making for the MPO region which includes Forsyth County and portions of Davie, Davidson and Stokes Counties. The next meeting of the TAC will be held Thursday, May 20, 2021 at 4:15 p.m. This meeting is being held via teleconfer ence with applicable video access to protect our community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Agenda ma terials for this meeting can also be found at www.cityofws.org/Depart- ments/Transportation/MPO/TAC. The below items will be presented for adoption during this meeting: • Consideration of additions and amendments to the FY 2020-2029 Metropolitan Transportation Im provement Program (MTIP) • 2021-2022 UPWP Amendments Public notice of public participation plan activities and time established for public review of and comments of the TIP will satisfy the Program of Projects (POP) requirements. Any person who believes they have been aggrieved by an unlawful dis- criminatoiy practices regarding the Winston-Salem Urban Area MPO programs has a right to file a com plaint with Kelly Garvin, City of Winston-Salem, P.O. Box 2511, Winston-Salem, NC 27102, within 180 days following the date of the alleged discrimination occurrence. A&T State student receives bachelor’s degree - 38 years after she first enrolled I If i K1 BY TEVIN STINSON THE CHRONICLE Last Sunday was a very special day for Winston- Salem resident Michelle Wright. Nearly 40 years after she first enrolled at the N.C. A&T State Uni versity, Wright walked across the stage and re ceived her bachelor’s de gree. In the fall of 1983, af ter graduating from high school, Wright decided to take her talents to N.C. A&T, where she ma jored in music education. Wright said music has al ways been a big part of her life, so it was a no-brainer that she would go into that field. “My whole family are music lovers, my mother and my grandmother were musicians in the church for years and my grandmother taught music in two dif ferent school systems ... on my father’s side of the family, all of them sing so it was in my blood,” Wright laughed while talk ing with The Chronicle last week. Wright made it to her junior year, but like a lot of college students, the newfound freedom she had was too much to handle, which resulted in her dropping out in 1986. Wright said growing up, she didn’t have a lot of freedom, so when she got on campus she took ad vantage of it. “My dad was kind of strict,” Wright said. “He exposed us to a lot of cul tural things, but I didn’t have the experience of other things like going to the parties and doing a lot of hanging out, so when I did get to A&T and freedom was gifted to Submitted photo Antonette Penn me, because of me being naive and green, I didn’t know how to manage ... so by year three I literally flunked out of A&T.” Wright said she always thought about going back and earning her degree, but she didn’t think she was capable of getting it done. She started giving it more thought after her partner, Antonette Penn, heard about the Aggies at the Goal Line, a program designed to help former Aggies who did not com plete their bachelor’s de grees return to the univer sity. A few months after she started looking into the program, Wright’s son was shot and killed. “In the midst of me trying to make a decision on what to do, if I could do it and all that, my son was killed,” she said. Wright said her son’s death is what pushed her to go back. And on Aug. 16, 2017, on what would’ve been her son’s 23rd birth day, Wright started her second stint at N.C. A&T. “I knew I had to have some purpose in my life because if not, I was going to be consumed by anger and hatred,” she contin ued. “I just knew I had to channel that energy in an other way ... and the fact that I started on Junior’s birthday was a sign that this was what I needed to be doing.” While holding down a full-time job, taking care of her mother and other family members, Wright completed the require ments for her bachelor’s degree by taking six hours a semester and nine hours in the summer. She said it wasn’t easy, but she was determined to get it done. “The tassel was worth the hassle,” Wright laughed, “ft wasn’t easy ... we’re talking about returning to school after 30-plus years, school had evolved and I hadn’t. I didn’t know how to upload assignments - we were still turning in papers and writing in pen and pencil when I left - so I had to learn a whole new system. I had to make a complete paradigm shift to be able to make it.” With support from her family, church family, and other loved ones, Wright was able to finish what she set out to do 38 years ago and on Sunday, May 9, Wright walked across the stage and received her bachelor’s degree in liber al studies. Wright said she isn’t done; she has plans to start a master’s program at UNC Greensboro later this year. Wright said when she walked across the stage, she had to pinch herself to make sure it was really happening. “I dreamed of that day I saw myself going across the stage, but at some points I didn’t think it was possible. But when that day came, it was inde scribable. “I felt relieved. I felt accomplished. I finally did it,” Wright said. 4 !v A a/perture is open a/gain! upcoming titles aperturecinema.com CONTACTING THE CHRONICLE www.wschronicle.com To send news items: email news@wschronicle.com The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) was established by Ernest H. Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974 and is 1300 E. Fifth St., Winston Salem, N.C. 27101 Main Phone Number: 336-722-8624 Advertising: Ext. 113 Circulation/Subscriptions: Ext. 100 To send a Letter to the Editor (350 words or less) or column (550 words or less): email letters@wschronicle.com For advertising: email adv@wschronicle.com For subscriptions: email plewis@wschronicle.com Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/WSChron- icle Follow us on Twitter: WS_Chronicle published every Thursday by Chronicle Media Group, LLC, 1300 E. Fifth St., Winston Salem, N.C. 27101. Periodicals postage paid at Winston-Salem, N.C. An nual subscription price is $30.72. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636 Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636 Editor: Ext. 108
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 20, 2021, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75