jackson weather: 55f (13c)

home > Jacksonian

Ruby Dixon


Kenya Hudson

by Treshika Melvin
October 8, 2008

A typical conversation with Ruby Dixon in the halls of Lanier high school might go something like this: “Hey Ruby! Coming to choir practice today?”

“I am, but I’m leaving early for the basketball game֖my videotaping duties. I’ll see you Saturday for Learn & Serve America!”

Whether it’s singing in Lanier’s superior-rated choir, videotaping a school basketball game, or dancing at a Friday night football game as a Rangerette, Dixon, 17, loves to represent her school.

“Lanier is a lot different than what people think,” the senior says at the Medgar Evers Library in Jackson. Dixon says that many of her friends who don’t go to Lanier share the misconception that the school is a place where students sit in class and do nothing. “We don’t get to do what we want—we have structure—but I love it. It’s a lot of fun,” she says. “We do just as much work as everyone else.”

Dixon admits that she gets upset when she hears stereotypes about her school, but says, “I don’t use talking to get my point across.”

The Lanier honor student is involved in six clubs and still makes time to sing, dance and read. A member of the National Honor Society, Ruby scored a 25 on the ACT and a perfect score on her U.S. history state test. She works with Lanier principal Shemeka McClung and some of the school’s teachers in the Site Base Council group, which meets to talk about how to better the school. She is also involved in Learn & Serve America, a volunteer program tied to Lanier’s choir that motivates children to read and be enthusiastic about school.

Last year, Dixon tied for the No. 1 academic spot in her junior class with a 3.875 GPA.

“I always want to do better. You can never take education too seriously,” Dixon says. “School is the path I have to take in order to get where I want to be in life.”

With high hopes for her senior year, Dixon says she wants to get all As. She hopes to receive a full academic scholarship to attend Jackson State University. Dixon is not sure which profession she’ll choose; she wants to be a psychiatrist because she likes listening to people and helping them solve their problems, but she is also interested in becoming a news broadcaster because she likes to talk. When asked what advice she’d give to upcoming high school students and underclassmen, Ruby says to just be yourself.

“Keep God first and never settle for less,” she says.

 
posted by on 10/08/08 at 03:56 PM. [printer version]    Share |

COMMENTS

 

You are not logged-in. To post a comment, you must be a registered user and logged in. Click here to register or click here to login.

:: recentcomments
Nov 20, 2009 | 06:37 PM
[Editor's Note] Love Thy Neighbor
Izzy: it's not enough to just study something - at some point you have to act. Systematic exclusion can be read as hatred, even when those involved in it do not feel it to be that. This is ...
Nov 20, 2009 | 06:37 PM
[Editor's Note] Love Thy Neighbor
J.T.: Wintrhop, your last sentence "I don't want a small and manageable God. I prefer one that I can't fully understand." bears out that we each have perceptions of God. And, when the ...
Nov 20, 2009 | 06:03 PM
[Editor's Note] Love Thy Neighbor
Wintrhop Sargent: Funny you should mention the gender issue of a deity. I was at lunch with a St. Andrews priest one time and a very conservative member of the Cathedral came to our table ...
Nov 20, 2009 | 05:37 PM
[Editor's Note] Love Thy Neighbor
Izzy: I wouldn't be too sure your church doesn't preach hate if your liturgy is not gender-inclusive. Think about it - is God really a "He" or a "Father"? Those are some images or visions of ...
Nov 20, 2009 | 03:35 PM
Barbour Wants to Merge State's Black Universities
baquan2000: Goldenae - you pointed out a key element in your post, "the point is that he would even suggest such a thing. And the sad part is that from the polls, the people ...
Nov 20, 2009 | 03:15 PM
[Doyle] From Dixie, With Love
amoderatemississippian : check out the following link: http://www.oxfordeag le.com/news2.html It does appear, by the article written today, that possibly a sizeable portion of the student body ...
Nov 20, 2009 | 02:55 PM
[Editor's Note] Love Thy Neighbor
Wintrhop Sargent: WMartin - At the church I attend, St. Andrew's Cathedral, there is no teaching or preaching about hate (unless you include the teaching and preaching AGAINST hate). I'm ...
Nov 20, 2009 | 02:10 PM
[Doyle] From Dixie, With Love
ladd: A fail-safe principle I've always sworn by: If the Kluckers agree with me about something, I need to rethink it.
Nov 20, 2009 | 01:39 PM
[Doyle] From Dixie, With Love
Goldenae: I would truly be ashamed of myself if I looked at life and others the way the some people do. Some folks can not put themselves in another person's shoes to save their lives. It is ...
Nov 20, 2009 | 01:27 PM
Barbour Wants to Merge State's Black Universities
Goldenae: Why is it so hard to understand that regardless of what we would like to think, there are different standards. That is quite obvious in Barbour's suggestion of ...
 


view "flip" version of this week's issue

 

Guests online: 115
Logged-in members: 2
Anonymous members: 0
Elapsed time: 1.2671
The most number of visitors ever was 920 at once on 04/28/2009
currently online: Izzy  L.W.

 

© Jackson Free Press, Inc. - portions of code by CC with EE.
phone: 601-362-6121 (ext 11 sales, ext 16 editorial, ext 17 publisher)
fax: 601-510-9019 * P.O. Box 5067 * Jackson, MS * 39296