The emotional story of Passion Waiters was one of many among this year’s Lenoir County Early College High School graduating class.
Thirty-eight students earned their high school diplomas Thursday, with 26 of them receiving associate’s degrees because of the unique set-up of the school’s five-year program.
Nearly half of the 2013 graduating class did so with academic distinction.
But the scholastic deeds of Waiters have a dual meaning for the first-generation high school graduate.
“I do all of this to help my mom one day,” said Waiters of her high academic achievements, including a 3.68 grade point average. “That’s my No. 1 goal. She didn’t graduate from high school, and plus she was a single parent.”
Waiters, 19, was raised in Kinston’s housing projects and said her background influenced her behavior in school and the community. She is active in her church, volunteers with outreach programs and was ranked No. 6 in her class.
“I want to do something big and show people that even though you come from the projects, you don’t have to be another stereotype,” said Waiters with her charmingly stridentvoice. “I don’t think it was as tough as me for other people because my family is very supportive.”
She said she is one of the youngest among her cousins, which draws high demands from her relatives.
“They pressure me a lot, but it’s good pressure,” Waiters said. “Not a lot of people in my family went to college.”
The new graduate will attend North Carolina A&T to study industrial engineering, as her favorite subjects are math and science. Coming from a military family, Waiters considered joining the U.S. Navy to work on nuclear missiles but was instead pushed to pursue a degree.
“(There are) not a lot of African-American women that do engineering,” she said. “I know sometimes they feel inferior, so I’m going to take that challenge.”
The entire LCECHS campus, housed at Lenoir Community College, made it to graduation with somewhat of its own bump in the road, which some 38 Early College graduates rolled over smoothly.
Former principal Jason Miller took a job at LCC’s Greene County campus in April, and the district replaced him with Rochelle Middle Principal Nicholas Harvey II. Pam Heath, a former assistant principal of North Lenoir High School, served as the interim for the remainder of the year.
She said her short time with the 169 Early College students this year was a unique experience.
“It’s really exciting,” Health said about the graduates. “These 38 graduates are so dedicated, so devoted. It is like a family here, it’s so small.”
She added, “Passion is just one of the 38 that has a special story to tell; they all really have special stories to tell.”
Heath said she watched Waiters search tirelessly for scholarships the past couple of months, and she joked the Ronald McDonald House Charities Scholarship winner was in the school counselor’s office more than Karen Roddy, the actual counselor.
Roddy revisited Waiters’ 2009 application to the school and said it expressed the same “focus and determination” Waiters had the day of graduation.
“Passion is very focused on her future,” Roddy stated. “Having worked closely with Passion, I know she is a total optimist. She doesn’t see run-down homes in her neighborhood, she sees a community of nice neighbors.”
Roddy said because tight-knit schools solves problems in a unified group, each of the Early College graduates had a successful mindset going into graduation, including Waiters.
“I think this school is the absolute best,” Waiters exclaimed Thursday just hours before crossing the stage. “No matter where you come from, what your background is or what your social status is, you can always be something great.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.
LenoirCountyEarly College High School 2013 Graduation
38 graduates
38 high school diplomas
26 associate’s degrees
17 students graduated with academic distinctions
Interim Principal — Pam Heath