The Selma Times-Journal

Honor roll students at Selma C.H.A.T. this week got a special treat for their achievements.

Selma Middle C.H.A.T. Academy held a Principal Honor’s program in the gymnasium Monday for seventh and eighth grade students who made the academic honor roll for the first nine-week period of the 2007-08 school year.

Proud parents and faculty applauded the students.

Guest speaker for the event was Jerria Martin, a former Miss Jubilee who is currently a sophomore at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa. She attended Selma C.H.A.T. and Selma High School.

Martin shared stories from growing up as a teenager in Selma, and lessons she learned along the way.

Martin threw a verbal curveball to the audience when she announced that she was pregnant, and that if anyone wanted to get pregnant too, they should. Martin hesitated a moment before adding that she was pregnant with hope and with passion.

“I just wanted to encourage the kids to have hope and passion, because those things give birth to success,” Martin said.

Dr. Verdell Lett Dawson, interim superintendent for Selma City Schools, 7th and 8th grade principals Roosevelt Wilson and Bertram Pinckney and Mayor James Perkins, Jr. also spoke during the program.

Perkins applauded student and parents for their efforts.

“These students have succeeded in spite of” poor facilities and other setbacks, Perkins said.

Joan Roussell, a former Selma C.H.A.T. teacher whose grandson, Victor, made the all-A honor roll, said she thoroughly enjoyed the program.

“I think it was a wonderful program,” Roussell said. “It was excellent. The speaker couldn’t have said anything better to these kids.”

The school’s counselor, Kesia Smith, presented the seventh and eighth graders with their honorary certificates.