Berkeley Leader

On Aug. 8, Berkeley County School District celebrated more than 30 graduates who successfully completed summer coursework to help them secure their high school diplomas. Many of these graduates participated in the district's annual summer graduation ceremony that was held at Goose Creek High (view full story and photo gallery).

These graduates come from all walks of life; check out two summer graduates below, who recently shared their personal journeys on completing high school.

Tativanna Wright

Just a mere couple of hours before she crossed the stage to get her high school diploma, Tativanna Wright was processing how she felt about graduating.

For one, she felt happy – and excited. She also felt a lot more confident in herself than she had before.

Most of all, she felt proud – and she should be; graduating high school was not an easy road, but Wright braved it, and now she is officially a part of the Stratford High alumni family.

Wright will be the first to tell anybody: do not listen to negativity.

“I always kept God first, prayed and had a plan for myself to…not give up and just keep moving,” she said. “If I can say anything to any student that’s struggling: just be patient. Ask questions…don’t be afraid to keep going.”

Wright has struggled with dyslexia since a young age. Graduating high school meant having to put in extra work to keep at it, including three summers of content recovery classes to stay on track.

However, undeterred, Wright rose above all of that.

“It doesn’t matter if you have dyslexia. It doesn’t matter if you have a learning disability or anything,” Wright said.

Wright grew up in Berkeley County School District; she attended all the Westview schools before joining Stratford high.

She loved being a Stratford Knight, doting on the school’s family-like atmosphere. She spoke highly of Principal Jayma Diaz, who was an assistant principal at the school prior to taking over as principal last school year.

“She makes me feel like we’re a team and we’re family,” Wright said, adding, “She is so joyful. I just love her.”

Wright named a number of people who helped her stay on track to graduate, particularly her school counselor, Sherree Davis (“Big shout out to her – that lady was amazing”), who would regularly check on Wright to provide the support she needed. A week prior to the summer graduation ceremony, Wright was mostly worried about her grade in probability and statistics…but on Friday she got the good news – she passed.

“I was happy – I was shocked that I passed, too, because math is not my ‘good’ subject,” she said.

Her creativity is where she truly shines; Wright likes writing poetry, and particularly enjoyed her English 4 class this past year because she enjoyed learning how to be a better writer.

Wright has plans to go to a cosmetology school and dreams of one day opening a hair salon. As an active member of her church, she has a heart for children as well as the homeless community; Wright said she would like to get to a place where she can help children in foster care, and also wants to run a salon that helps homeless people get primped and prepared for job interviews.

Wright was joined by her parents, Evelynn Wright and William Lott, at graduation.

In addition to Davis and Diaz, Wright also named her godmother, April Lott, as one of her biggest supporters, as well as Robin Pippens-Brown, one of her teachers at Westview Middle, who pushed Wright to keep working hard and always told Wright she knew she would graduate.

Wright wants other students to remember: just do your best – “That’s all you can do,” she said.

 

Wesley Burnett

This future Marine is graduating from high school a year early.

Wesley Burnett did not have any immediate plans to try to graduate early when he started at Philip Simmons High as a freshman, but the opportunity ended up presenting itself when he learned about taking additional credits through VirtualSC, a free state-sponsored online program that serves sixth through 12th-grade students currently attending public, private and home schools, plus Adult Education programs.

“It feels great,” Burnett said. “It’s nice to leave early and get ahead.”

Burnett grew up in a military family. He is the son of Gary and Tonya Burnett. He is originally from Ohio; the family’s move to Berkeley County was actually his 13th move. The family’s previous moves include Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Japan.

Burnett was able to spend all of his high school career at Philip Simmons High. When he realized he was getting close to completing all his high school credits, Burnett learned about VirtualSC through a friend, and found it would allow him to take online classes during the spring and the summer.

He took three virtual courses this past spring (in addition to his workload at Philip Simmons High) and this summer he finished two courses, enabling Burnett to finish all his credits before his senior year and graduate a year early.

Burnett took government, economics, forensics, English 4 and probability and statistics through VirtualSC. He said he managed his workload with “a lot of long nights.” VirtualSC is self-paced, so he did a lot of his virtual work during his downtime.

His advice to other students trying to go the same route: “Just use your time wisely. Whenever you’re not doing anything…don’t waste it… Just work at it, and work hard at it, and you’ll get there.”

Burnett has a pretty intense work ethic; in addition to his studies, he was also very active in Philip Simmons High’s AFJROTC program during his sophomore and junior years. The program is led by Lt Col (Ret) Chris Ott and CMSgt (Ret) Michelle Siau – Burnett named both of them as two notable teachers who helped him in his high school career.  

“I just gained some good values and a lot of knowledge about the military,” he said.

Burnett is now planning to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the United States Marine Corps – he actually got to wear special red, white and blue cords as part of his graduation garb when he crossed the stage earlier this week.

He will pursue a career in cybersecurity. He leaves Aug. 14 for training on Parris Island for 13 weeks, and then he will head to Pensacola, Florida for about nine months.

As much as he enjoyed Philip Simmons High, Burnett does not have any plans to move back to South Carolina permanently; as a seasoned traveler, he said he is mostly excited about the travel aspect of joining the Marines, and that as soon as he finishes training, he wants to go to another country – particularly somewhere in Asia.

However, he said he will miss the tightknit Iron Horse community.

“I don’t think it’s hit me yet,” he said, adding he looks forward to graduating from basic training in November. “I’m pretty excited.”

Monica Kreber

kreberm@bcsdschools.net

Original source can be found here.