Pisgah teacher organizes College Signing Day for seniors
Seventeen-year-old Pisgah High School student Aaliyah Pierce will be the first in her family to have the chance to graduate college, and she credits Pisgah with that opportunity.
Pierce, along with about 40 other seniors, celebrated their acceptance into college at the school's first-ever College Signing Day, an event dreamed up by 12th grade English teacher Lillian Sims.
Sims said she had been noticing all the ceremony around high school students who go on to play college sports. For her students, the only ceremony that occurred was writing their college of choice on a white board in her classroom.
It didn't seem to do justice to the amount of work this group of seniors, 90 percent of whom are continuing on to college, did to get to this point.
Sims said she was particularly impressed with this senior class, many of whom come from poverty. Their ACT average as a class of 46 students is a 21, higher than the state average of 19. She knew she had to do something for them, so she started planning the College Signing Day months ago, coordinating other teachers and administrators who donned gear from their alma maters.
"Some people think school is like a jail, something you have to go through to be able to go on and do fun things," Sims, who is in her second year of teaching at the rural high school, said. "But school is an opportunity, and you can become good at it the way you become good at sports."
The College Signing Day was an attempt to promote that attitude – that continuing education is something to celebrate.
The small gym was packed with seniors, their families and underclassmen as Sims called out each senior's name and their accomplishments, and they ran to the table that had the college banner of their choice, along with teachers who had attended that college. Many students crowded at the Mississippi State University and University of Mississippi tables, along with Hinds and Holmes community colleges (including Pierce), but a few students went to tables with less familiar college names.
Katy-Mack Froelick, who proudly wore a Savannah College of Art and Design t-shirt at Wednesday's event, was one of them.
Froelick's parents Joey and Vicki said Froelick has known since she was in the 7th grade she wanted to pursue a career in art – more specifically, 3-D animation.
When she decided she wanted to go to SCAD, her parents told her they wouldn't be able to afford tuition at the private art school, which runs about $33,000 for one year.
So, she set out to make it happen herself. She got 38 hours of college credit, the most of anyone in her class, through Pisgah's partnership with Hinds Community College. She also performed well on the ACT and took online classes from SCAD.
As a result, she'll be at SCAD in the fall on scholarship, with all of her tuition paid.
Froelick's parents said when they moved from Starkville, they knew they wanted Katy-Mack to come to Pisgah.
"This school is the reason we're here," Joey said. "This is where we wanted her to graduate."
Sims feels the same way about her decision to teach here. Though the school is small and rural, she says it's special.
"I live in Flowood and drive twenty minutes in the 'wrong direction,' away from Jackson, every morning, as do many of the PHS teachers," Sims said. "Most people I meet have never heard of this school and are confused as to why all we teachers bother to drive past other schools to teach here."
But the students and the administrators make it what it is.
"The principal is a true academic, he hires the nerdiest teachers he can find, and he lets us challenge students as much as we can," she continued. "I have set the bar just as high as my beloved private school English teacher did and I have only felt supported for doing so."
Pisgah High, located in the northern part of Rankin County, has over 380 students in grades 7-12. It has been designated as a high performing school for the last four years.
Contact Kate Royals at (601) 360-4619 or kroyals@gannett.com. Follow @KRRoyals on Twitter.