The Columbus Exchange Club meets every week, but for Lee Burdine, Thursday’s meeting is the one he looks forward to most each year.
As committee chairman, it is Burdine’s privilege to announce the winners of the Exchange Club’s Accepting the Challenge of Excellence Awards (ACE). Through the ACE Awards, a program the National Exchange Club began in 1996, local clubs throughout the nation select their winners, who then advance to district and state competitions.
The awards are based on students’ personal narratives, presented through essays.
Honored Thursday were students from Caledonia, Columbus, Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, Heritage Academy, New Hope, Victory Christian and West Lowndes High School.
“A lot of times, when you read about education and what’s going on with kids, it’s not that encouraging,” Burdine said before announcing which of the seven students honored will go on to represent the club at the district event this spring. “So it’s great to have a chance to highlight and focus on these great kids and students that are representing Columbus and Lowndes County in such a positive way. A lot of times, the most inspirational stories aren’t those of the star students or the star athletes, but kids who have overcome serious obstacles. They often don’t get the recognition they deserve, which is why this is such a special event.”
William Ayers of Caledonia High School was chosen from among the seven high school seniors to represent the club in the district competition.
Ayers was diagnosed with a rare form of stomach cancer when he was in the eighth grade, which led to numerous surgeries, extended chemotherapy and radiation treatments for two years. Despite the grave illness, Ayers kept up his classwork, having his assignment delivered to him at St. Jude Children’ s Research Hospital in Memphis. After going into remission, the cancer returned in August, and Ayers has treatments at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.
“I had always made good grades before I got sick,” Ayers wrote in his essay. “I’m proud that I was able to keep my grades up and my grades were high enough as a senior to take some dual enrollment classes at (Mississippi University for Women. It’s great to know that I am capable of surpassing what was expected on me in high school.”
Ayers said he wants to continue his education and become an occupational therapist.
“Even when I was a little kid, I always knew I wanted to grow up to help other people,” he wrote. “Being an occupational therapist will allow me to help people who been sick or injured resume a healthy life.”
School winners
Other honorees were:
LaShon Webb of Columbus High School, who felt the stigma of being separated by his mother as a small child and “breaking the mold” that entraps many kids from difficult home environments to become student body president, Beta Club president and serve on the Mayor’s Youth Council;
Jose Perez of Heritage Academy, who became to first member of his family to leave Belize to pursue and education, overcoming the language and cultural barriers to excel in academics. Perez wrote he wants to continue his education in the U.S. to become an electrical engineer so he can return to his home town to help improve its substandard power plant;
Greg Billingsley, who, upon arriving at MSMS, realized his previous school in the Delta had not prepared him for the rigorous standards of his new school. Billingsley threw himself into catching up, taking two math classes and three English classes and making As, and he is today a high-achieving student;
Darius Hendrix of New Hope, who was badly injured in an auto accident in October, suffering traumatic brain injuries that required occupational and physical therapy to regain his ability to talk and walk while staying on track to graduate this spring;
Logan McMullin of Victory Christian, who devoted much of his school years helping care for his mother, who had a series of debilitating strokes and eventually passed away. McMullin maintained his grades while helping provide care for his mom and, after her passing, helping his family cope with the tragedy; and
DeShunte Dickerson of West Lowndes, who was in an auto accident that claimed the life of her 9-year-old cousin in 2013. Dickerson had given her seat to her cousin on the ride with her aunt to school when the accident occurred and her cousin was the only person to sustain serious injuries as a result of her seat in the car.
Dickerson wrote that she was haunted with survivor’s guilt after the accident, but she found peace through devoting herself to helping others. She amassed the most hours of community service in her school.
“Community service helped me understand that life is so much bigger than me and there are needs much greater than my own,” she wrote.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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