When Sigma Gamma Rho sorority reinstated its Aurora chapter, Theta Zeta Sigma, it did so because members wanted to bring public attention to even more outstanding teenagers than they could in the Debutante Cotillion hosted by the existing Beta Rho Sigma chapter.
And so it was that 10 graduating high school seniors who are used to being first, best and examples of all that is good accepted invitations to curtsy at Theta Zeta Sigma’s inaugural Sigma Pearls Cotillion Ball. Ollie Smith chaired the black-tie ceremony at the Doubletree Hotel at Stapleton, and WB2 news anchor Asha Blake was the commentator.
Nayo Thomas, senior class president at George Washington High, was voted queen of the ball, and was escorted by family friend Wendell Perkins. She will attend Howard University in Washington, D.C., with the goal of becoming a corporate lawyer.
She is a Daniels Fund Scholar and was a member of GW’s speech and debate team and the swim and dive team. She participated in Theta Zeta Sigma’s youth activities since the chapter’s start a year ago, particularly in the Soles for Young Souls project. Members collected new shoes for needy children.
The debutantes wore identical white organza gowns with portrait collars, basque waistlines and silk flower accents designed for the occasion by Denver couturier Bobbie Jean Williams.
Brittany Page, recipient of the chapter’s Rhoyal Sapphire for Leadership Award, had been secretary-treasurer of her graduating class at East High and will study nursing at the University of Northern Colorado. “I’m going to minor in psychology because I want to work in pediatrics and be able to study the minds of the mothers to help them become better moms.”
Page had good reason to ask her cousin, Bruce Harrell, to be her escort for the ball. “He was an escort at the 2002 Owl Club ball, so he knows what this is all about.” Her guests that night included her mother, sister and grandmother, along with members of her Peaceful Rest Baptist Church “family.”
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Ashley Rankin, Gateway High’s 2005 Athlete of the Year, won the Iva Lois Wiggins for the Arts award. She made honor roll all four years at Gateway, where she played basketball, track and soccer, and was a trigonometry tutor. She will attend her parents’ alma mater, Alcorn State University in Mississippi, on an athletic scholarship that will cover 70 percent of her tuition. Her escort was track team colleague Lamar Voltz.
Also making their debuts:
China Scroggins, captain of the South High dance team and a member of the National Honor Society, says, “The camaraderie between the girls … sharing laughs and becoming close” is what she liked best about being a debutante. She will study psychology and dance at Texas Southern University in Houston. Her goal is to earn a Ph.D. and open a dance studio.
Ashley Meredith is an Overland High graduate who will be premed at Colorado State University in the fall. Her goal is to become a plastic surgeon who will use proceeds from the lucrative cosmetic procedures to fund volunteer work with children needing reconstructive work in underdeveloped countries. She’s the first debutante in her family, “and everyone is super-excited for me. I missed my prom, so this is my chance to feel elegant and special.”
Ariel Price graduated from Jefferson County Open School, where she participated in a prairie-dog relocation program and wrote for school publications. A self-described tomboy wearing her first petticoat, she said being a deb made her feel “elegant and great … it’s nice to go out with a bang, with the focus on us.” Price will major in metaphysics at Colorado College.
LaTia Walker, who also will attend Colorado College, is a graduate of Eaglecrest High, where she was a student body officer, peer trainer, diversity counselor, member of the Speech and Debate Club and played varsity golf. She wants to be a high school teacher.
Robyn Jackson’s favorite subject at East High was chemistry, so she’ll major in education at UNC with the goal of teaching high school chemistry. A Denver native, she was pleased to find one of her middle school chums, Tammy Gay, also was in the deb class.
Gay will be attending Langston University, as will fellow East grad Channyl Holmes. The two hope to room together while Gay pursues a degree in pharmacology and Holmes majors in either early-childhood education or psychology for kids with special needs.
In high school, Gay was assistant secretary of Future Business Leaders of America and a member of the Black Students Alliance. Holmes, meanwhile, belonged to the poms squad, National Honor Society and Students for Justice.
The activities before the ball were fun, Holmes said, “But I’ll always remember the actual night. I think we’re all nervous, but we are made to feel so special.”
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-820-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
