Dollarway’s Gary leads final class
This is the seventh entry in the Class of 2023 series.
Kindergartners envision what they would like to become when they grow up.
Even in that early stage of life, Jamiyah Gary had an idea of her own.
“I knew I was going to be valedictorian since I was in kindergarten, honestly,” Gary said. “That was my dream. I always wanted to be the best at everything I did. I thought, yep, I’m going to be valedictorian.”
Twelve years later, Gary is at the head of Dollarway High School’s 69th and final graduating class. Commencement is set for 6:30 tonight at the Pine Bluff Convention Center, and a large crowd of alumni is anticipated.
The school will merge with Pine Bluff High School effective July 1, the two-year anniversary of the Dollarway School District’s annexation with the Pine Bluff School District. Low enrollment and fiscal reasons led to the coming change, although the Dollarway campus could remain open to house junior high students.
“It’s an honor to be the last valedictorian of Dollarway High School,” Gary said. “I feel as though it’s sad that, you know, the school is ending, but I’m glad I’m making history. My class is making history. Because I’m the first valedictorian in my family, ever, and of Dollarway High School, it’s an achievement because a lot of people don’t make it.”
And nothing, not even a significant life event, was going to keep Gary from her goal since kindergarten.
“She overcame a big, major setback, but she stayed on top of her game,” said Lavasha Marks, Gary’s mother and a 2000 Dollarway graduate. “I am proud of her because she’s always been the one out of all my kids who wanted to do the best and stayed on top of everything from pre-K all the way to her 12th-grade year. I’m very proud and I’m glad she is valedictorian for Dollarway and represents my alumni well.”
The “setback” kept Gary out of the classroom for a time but it also brought about a blessing — the birth of her daughter Journei, now 4 months old.
Continuing her education
virtually “took a lot of work,” Gary said. She kept “blowing up” guidance counselor Freddie Harris’ phone asking him to put in her work.
“For her, that’s really a big thing because you have a lot of teen moms [and] they have to drop out of school and don’t have that support system,” Marks said.
“I was that support system. I motivated her and told her, ‘Just because you had a minor setback, don’t let that be your downfall.’ She used that to keep her going and stuff because for her to be out of school, doing virtual, and to come back and be on top of her class, that’s a major thing. You don’t see that at all, in some cases.”
Gary’s favorite subject is English because she likes to express herself in short stories that usually center around life and things in the community.
Her plan is to major in K-6 early education at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, but the real-life protagonist’s career decision didn’t come easily.
“I was undecided for a long time,” Gary said. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to become a doctor or be a dentist. I wanted to help the kids. I wanted to give back to the community. I wanted to become a teacher because they’re going to need teachers that care and love them and stuff.”
Gary stayed busy while on campus, serving as Student Council secretary, participating in Future Business Leaders of America, cheerleading, running track and playing basketball. True to her love for writing, she was senior editor of the yearbook club and was executive officer, or XO, in JROTC.
She’ll miss the teachers the most about Dollarway.
“Honestly, we have — I know people look down on Dollarway like, ‘Oh, those teachers don’t care about those kids’ — but we have teachers who care, Ms. Elouise Shorter, Ms. Phyllis Childs, Mr. [Frank] Lyles, Mr. Harris. They will literally work with you and stay after school to help you and have a phone open if you needed help or extra support,” Gary said.
Dollarway’s undergraduates will complete their education elsewhere, but Gary offered them and those she’ll walk across the stage with tonight some advice.
“What I have to say to my fellow classmates is, you are still a Cardinal, regardless of where you go,” she said. “Stay on top of your game and show them what you are made of.”