Angelique Henderson is the first Warlick Academy graduate to earn an outside scholarship.
It was her payoff for navigating a tough personal journey.
Warlick Academy is the alternative school for Gaston County, where students receive coaching to grow academically and behaviorally. Henderson was placed in the school after she was involved in a fight at South Point High, where she attended through junior year. Though she had always maintained good grades, she says personal issues steered her in the wrong direction.
“I was sort of a problem child, and I was bullied a lot and nobody really cared about me, and I wasn’t that focused,” she said. “I was very narrow-minded until I went to Warlick.”
She quickly embraced her new environment as a senior at the school. Through the guidance of school counselors and teachers, Henderson began mentoring classmates and became a student ambassador. She says the mix of students from different backgrounds helped her learn to effectively deal with personal differences.
“I learned not to see just black and white. There are always gray areas,” she said. “I wasn’t used to that environment, and I got to interact and learn from (classmates) and hopefully they can learn from me to.”
She became more involved in volunteer activities at her church, Christ United Methodist in Charlotte. Henderson says she helps build ramps and staircases around the community and performs yard work for the elderly. She also packs shoeboxes with holiday gifts that are sent to children around the world. She calls her pastor, Danny Mitchem, her most important mentor.
“Over the years he made me more of a social person and made me help more,” she said.
She wrote about his influence in an application essay for the Paul F. Fuller Scholarship, worth $1,000 a year for four years. The Community Foundation of Gaston County awards the scholarship to a graduating senior who participated in the county’s student mentoring program.
“I had to write about how mentorship has changed me and how I helped others,” she said.
Henderson won the scholarship, along with two others, for her achievements at Warlick Academy. She will use them to pay for tuition this fall at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
She plans to double-major in French and art. She hopes to spend her career as a multimedia animator, having drawn influence from her favorite cartoon, Teen Titans.
“Teen Titans was based around teenagers and real-life problems,” she said. “I liked that.”
You can reach Eric Wildstein at 704-869-1828 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteEric.
