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Dear Editor:

This letter is to celebrate a new side I see in a young acquaintance of my family from a few years back.  And to celebrate with Selma at the accomplishments of one of her natives, a SHS graduate in the Class of 2010 and a former employee of the SCS at Clark Elementary.  I became reacquainted recently with Sherry Jackson, after knowing her from afar when she umpired baseball and softball with my husband and son a few years ago and seeing her at Potter’s Place Church when I visited there.  Sherry will leave Saturday for Senegal, being sent there as the first Fulbright Scholar from Selma!  She is also the youngest Black person from Alabama to be chosen as a Fulbright Scholar.  Sherry’s path leading to the Fulbright has not been a straight shot.  Her story is told in her book published in 2022, My Struggle to the Call, available on Amazon.

I asked this young Christian friend if the “Call” in the title was to her profession or to knowing and being used by God or both.  She responded “Both”!  And I see that in what she details in her book. Since graduating from Selma High School in 2010 and graduating from ASU in 2021 with a Master’s degree in biology, Sherry has learned so much about life and being “…God’s Workmanship, created  in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV).  In Chapter 7 of her book, she talks about misunderstandings of God causing issues with identity, guilt, control, anger, pride, trust.  Her advice is “If you struggle with any of those issues, it’s time to let God be the loudest voice in your life!”  Chapter 7, titled Closed Chapters, ends with these two paragraphs:  “We’ve been deafened by the voice of conformity, the voice of criticism, and the voice of condemnation, and the side effects include loneliness, shame, and anxiety.  The good news?  You not only bear God’s image but you know His voice.  It’s His voice that knit you together in your mother’s womb.  It’s His voice that ordained all your days before one of them came to be.  It’s His voice that began a good work in you and His voice will carry it to completion.”

The last chapter of Sherry’s book, “New Beginnings” states that Faith and Focus helped her to finish the book.  I am so thankful she did….it has taught me a lot and I am over twice Sherry’s age!  Thank you, Sherry, for seeking God on your journey and sharing it.  On the next to the last page Sherry says, “Being with God is a real place.” I love that sentence and know she means it.  I am so excited to know Sherry is close to completing a doctorate in educational leadership, policy and law at ASU. And I hear there is a second book on the horizon for publication! As a life sciences teacher at Clark Elementary School Sherry helped them to integrate STEM curriculum there, helped Clark be one of the Top 10 Most Improved Schools, helped her students receive national recognition in STEM related competitions, impacted her students also in the area of Robotics.

A quote from off of the back of My Struggle to the Call, we can all benefit from knowing:  “God wants us to hear what He’s saying, and we must heed His voice…But much more than that, He wants us to hear His heart.  So He whispers softer and softer so that we have to get closer and closer.  And when we finally get close enough, He envelops us in His arms and tells us that He loves us…”  Selma, as a city, let’s remember Sherry Jackson as she heads to the opportunities presented to her in the Fulbright Scholarship.  I know her faith and focus will help her to finish again.  And that she will return home with a broader perspective and new ways to help better the education in our schools here.  Sherry, as a Selma native graduating from AG Parrish HS 60 years ago,  I AM PROUD TO KNOW YOU AND PROUD OF YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS and look forward to seeing what is around the corner for you.  My prayer is you stick around close to home and continue to share your faith and focus to help the local students finish better and better each year! Godspeed, my friend.

Gail Box Ingram

Valley Grande