Ragina Drake

DUNBAR HIGH SCHOOL

When Ragina Drake transferred from Fairborn schools to Dayton Public Schools the second quarter of her freshman year, she didn’t know what to expect. She applied to Ponitz Career Tech, but because of the mid-year transfer she could only get into Dunbar High School the first year.

“As I transferred I heard so many negative things and stereotypes about Dunbar,” she said, such as “it’s a ghetto and all they do is fight.”

Drake would go on to discover Dunbar’s college credit plus program that allowed her to graduate this spring as valedictorian of Dunbar, and with 40 hours of college credit on her transcript.

“I feel like Dunbar opened up a lot of opportunities for me,” said Drake, who has a scholarship to North Carolina A&T. She wants to study law and some day run her own firm.

She said there really weren’t more fights at Dunbar than at Fairborn. She said there were great teachers and students. She believes many of the students who didn’t apply themselves were having problems at home.

“We learn the same (in Fairborn and DPS). We’re taught out of the same books. The only difference is some students act like they don’t want to learn because things they are going through we might not know about,” she said.

“My parents have always pushed me to want to succeed in my goals,” she said.