Ask Tranikeya Sanders to share some of her activities and accomplishments at Thornton High School, and her eyes light up. “Oh, I was into everything,” she exclaims, ticking off a list that includes clubs, sports, prom royalty and serving as a mentor to underclassmen.
As she speaks, she has no inkling of what’s to come.
It’s 6 p.m. last Sunday, and she’s in a dressing room at the Marriott Denver Tech Center, where she and Shayla Renee Bouknight, Mishee Markeida Burnett, Cassia Raine Clark, Codi Kathryn Cox, Dar’Jai Lynn Dead- wyler, Jade Monea Demmer-White, Ebony Chantae Flowers, Ariel Saree Kelly, Danielle Vonnia Lewis, Elia Renee Martin, Tera Le’nay Robbs and Antoinette Janine West are taking one last look in the mirror before the beginning of the 45th annual ball put on by Beta Rho Sigma chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority.
Once the final curtsy has been made, chairwoman Juanita Stevenson and past chair Shawnetta Madden would join mistress of ceremonies Tamara Banks in crowning Sanders queen of the ball.
It was a fitting finale, Sanders said later, to what had been “a great experience,” one that “helped shape us as young women of character.” Come fall, she’ll be a freshman at Grambling State, majoring in political science and prelaw with the goal of becoming a fashion-industry attorney.
Tera Robbs and Antoinette West rounded out the court of honor. West, who graduated from Eaglecrest High School with a 4.2 average, also received the ball’s Scholastic Award. Danielle Lewis received the Community Award, and Codi Cox won for Best Essay.
Lewis, who was president of the East High School chapter of Future Business Leaders of America, will study marketing and accounting at Fort Hays State University in Kansas. She says she values the debutante experience because while it required hard work and perseverance, it also taught her that “while we are 13 different people, we share a lot of the same goals.”
As debutantes, the girls were required to participate in several community-service projects, a talent tea, essay contest, etiquette training and youth symposium. They also visited the state Capitol to observe the legislature in session.
The Sky Is Not the Limit was the evening’s theme, and chapter basileus Elma Joyce Hairston encouraged the debs to take that message to heart. “This evening is not your destination,” she said. “It is a milestone in your journey. (So) dream big, accomplish much. You have the ability to go far.”
Advice well-taken, it would seem.
Mishee Burnett, one of six debs who were East High School grads, will be majoring in theater arts and speech at Alabama State University as the first step toward her goal of acting on Broadway or in motion pictures. Classmate Ebony Flowers, who’d been a cheerleader and member of the speech and debate club, wants to become a crime-scene investigator and will major in forensic science at Paine College in Georgia.
Ariel Kelly, who’d been in the honors choir at East, will study vocal jazz performance at Howard University, while classmate Elia Martin is taking her first step toward becoming a dentist by majoring in biology at Prairie View A&M.
Dar’Jai Deadwyler, an alumna of Smoky Hill High School, will be off to Concordia College in Selma, Ala. Her dream of becoming a registered nurse began in 2002 after her mother, Deborah Shoates, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
It’s a perfect fit, says her dad, Bernard Deadwyler. “She’s a good kid with such a sweet soul.”
