By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal

“We have a student at Calhoun who is the first high school graduate in her family. She is going to be the first to go to college, and she’s from the Fort Deposit area.”
That was the announcement made by Lowndes County School Superintendent Dr. Daniel Boyd at last Thursday’s regular meeting of the Lowndes County Board of Education.
He was talking about 18-year-old Shanice Seawright, who said she is the first member of her immediate family of eight to graduate high school.
Boyd also acknowledged the efforts of Lowndes County Public Schools Director of Human Resources Kimberly M. Washington, who helped Seawright receive scholarships to attend Alabama A & M University in Huntsville.
She was granted a housing scholarship and some other grants valued at about $6,000, Washington said, and will potentially be placed on work-study.
“She doesn’t have a problem with leaving home and leaving her environment to do better,” Washington said. And she wants “to give back to her family and community.”
Washington said, “I was really excited to help her, and I think it’s amazing for child to be able to say they can use their education to move forward with their family.”
Washington said Seawright will major in biology.
Seawright has been working for the Lowndes County Board of Education this summer as a student aid to Washington doing custodial and clerical work.
“It feels good,” Seawright said of her high school graduation and the opportunity to go to college. “I want to give myself and my sisters a better opportunity and a better way to live. So, that was my main focus. Plus I wanted to work hard.”
Seawright said she wants to become a pediatrician.
“The commercials on TV are what triggered it,” she said. “I was watching cancer commercials with small children and I used to cry a lot. And so I said I would like to help them and find a new antidote for cancer and work with a research team.”
Science was Seawright’s favorite subject, she said. She said she had a 3.8 GPA out of 4.0 and was a Student of the Quarter for the Lowndes County Board of Education.
Sharily Seawright said, “I am a proud mother. I have a wonderful daughter. She always had a bright future. She’s mostly good at everything she does. She’s more than dependable. She has good potential.”
When asked about the thought of her daughter going away to school, Seawright said, “I proud of her. But I don’t want her to go. But I want her to be the best she can be. I’m the kind of momma, it’s just stabbing me because I’ve got to let my baby go.”