Gary’s ‘GT’ students show high hopes, higher accomplishments
Many of the students met in kindergarten at Banneker Elementary School in Gary, where they first bonded more than 15 years ago. Others joined this elite group of high-achievers at Tolleston Middle School or West Side High School.
Through the years, they’ve shared many of the same teachers, educators, and mentors within the Gary school system. And several Northwest Indiana role models routinely visited their classrooms to inspire them, including State Sen. Earline Rogers and Tuskegee Airman Quentin Smith.
Together, the students attended countless spelling competitions, summer camps, chess tournaments, tennis matches, Saturday school sessions, science projects, PTA meetings, art projects, book presentations, live theater productions and international language studies.
You name it, they learned it. And mastered it.
Along the way, they’ve only gotten closer, stronger and, of course, smarter before graduating from different colleges this past spring, many of them on full-ride scholarships.
The students’ names are dearly familiar to each other, as well as to their respected teachers, proud parents and avid supporters: Rachel Wright, Jatika Expose, Shannon Dixon, Kenecia Williams, Lydia Johnson, Kimberly Brown, MorganLeanne House, DeMark Jenkins, Romelle Morris, Malcolm Joseph, Amber Gardner, Elliott Staples and Shelbi Williams.
“I am just amazed at how well the whole group has done,” said Faye Tippy, mother of Rachel Wright. “I cannot believe how fast this has happened. And they’re still close no matter where they went to college.”
Expose, who graduated from Indiana University in June, said she feels “blessed” to have teachers who sincerely cared about her achievements, ability to finish high school and make it through college.
“They had the biggest influence on our lives, and some we still are in contact with to this day,” she said. “They pushed us to be excellent, to care about academics.”
For example, while other students were outside enjoying recess, the gifted and talented students — or “GT” students, as they’re called — would group together to work on the next night’s homework.
“So we wouldn’t have to worry about it,” Expose said.
DeMark Jenkins attended Pittman Square Elementary School, then Tolleston Middle School, where he entered the vaunted “GT” program.
“I was afraid because all the students in the program were from Banneker Elementary and, as a child, it was a stigma that the Banneker kids thought they were better than everyone else because they were smarter,” Jenkins said. “They were the prep children that we never saw up close.”
But he eventually melted into the challenging program while excelling as an athlete in high school. His football skills led to a fullride scholarship at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where he just graduated with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies.
“I have never lost contact with any of my friends from the GT program,” he said. “They are a large component