We're celebrating our 40th anniversary with monthly dives into our archives. This look back is from our October 2015 Top High Schools issue.
In October 2015, we interviewed six 2014 Richmond-area valedictorians about how well their high schools had prepared them for college. The response we received from Mercedes Hanks, John Marshall High School’s 2014 valedictorian, was surprising.
“My classes in high school did in no way prepare me for the rigor of my classes in college,” she said after her first year at James Madison University. But Hanks persevered, graduating from JMU this past May. She majored in sociology with minors in writing; rhetoric and technical communications; and African, African American and diaspora studies.
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Mercedes Hanks at her May graduation from James Madison University (Photo courtesy Mercedes Hanks)
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Hanks as she appeared in our October 2015 issue (Photo by Jay Paul)
She says the key to her success was finding “a family away from home.” She was active in JMU’s Center for Multicultural Student Services, the school’s chapter of the NAACP, a contemporary gospel choir and the Black Student Alliance. “When I first got to JMU, there was culture shock being a person of color at a predominately white university,” she says. “We have to create spaces for us, where we can be accepted and be ourselves.”
Hanks is taking a gap year, working in retail and at a day care before she applies to graduate school next spring. She hopes to continue her education in JMU’s College Student Personnel Administration master’s program. Ultimately, she wants to create higher education curriculum. “I am most passionate about education and helping marginalized students,” she says.
When asked to offer advice to incoming college students, Hanks says the key is “knowing what you want and finding those resources to get to where you want to be. You can’t be afraid to ask for help.”
