By May, Nia Raines will have earned two.
The 18-year-old will soon graduate from Cumberland Polytechnic High School. She already has one degree under her belt in December she completed work for her associate’s degree from Fayetteville Technical Community College. Graduation ceremonies for both schools are scheduled for next month.
Nia’s high school is located on the FTCC campus, and students there earn credits toward college. But she went the extra mile, taking summer courses, to earn her degree in a two-year program. She was just 17 at the time.
“I took a lot of summer classes to help me with that, to get me on the fast track,” says Nia, who has maintained a 3.8 GPA in high school. “It just accumulated. I worked very hard.”
Cumberland County Schools officials have released the district’s graduation exercise plans for seniors, and academic calendars for the next school year.
A news release from the district stated that this year’s ceremonies will be held in the Crown Coliseum and follow all North Carolina COVID-19 guidelines and capacity limitations.
“This plan was formulated after district administrators met with high school principals and senior class student leaders,” the news release stated. “Cumberland County Health Director Dr. Jennifer Green also reviewed the plan and made several recommendations.”
In order to comply with the capacity limitations and the six-foot social-distancing requirements, each school will conduct multiple graduation sessions by groups.
For about a year, Girl Scout Jasani Smallwood has been preparing to donate hats she made for Fayetteville s homeless community,
Smallwood, 17, was awarded the Girl Scouts Gold Award for knitting hats to donate to the homeless and educating others on how they can do the same. My mom and everyone, they were asking me to pick a topic that really reflected who I am as a person and what I m passionate about, said Smallwood. So, I knew that I liked making hats, because I ve been making them since third grade, and I knew that there was a big homeless population in Fayetteville, and I thought that maybe I could also help out by giving them in winter wear.