HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE RECALLS SENIOR YEAR IN THE MIDST OF COVID-19

Destiny Williams, a resident of Englewood, is a 2020 graduate of Wendell Phillips High School in Bronzeville. She will attend Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi in the fall. She plans to study criminal justice. Photo courtesy of Destiny Williams/Chicago Public Schools.
Destiny Williams, a resident of Englewood, is a 2020 graduate of Wendell Phillips High School in Bronzeville. She will attend Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi in the fall. She plans to study criminal justice. Photo courtesy of Destiny Williams/Chicago Public Schools.

High school graduate recalls senior year in the midst of COVID-19

BY TIA CAROL JONES

Destiny Williams is a member of the Class of 2020 from Wendell Phillips High School in Bronzeville. Throughout her four years at Phillips, she was active in both school activities and others that took place outside of the school.

Williams was the student council president, the National Honor Society Vice-President and was number four in her class. She was part of the school’s Debate Team. She also started the school’s student voice committee and organized an anti-violence rally to memorialize the students who attended Phillips who were victims of violence.

Like other seniors, Williams had benchmark moments of her final year in high school cancelled due to the schools closing because of COVID-19. She said she was not a fan of the remote learning and virtual graduation. “I am a hands-on learner, I don’t like sitting at a screen. I like to have a teacher explain it to me, in person,” she said.

Williams said she tried to convince the principal of Phillips to let the seniors have a drive-thru graduation. Williams said she has been through some obstacles during her four years at Phillips.

“During these four years, I’ve been really diligent and I’ve been persevering through it all,” she said. Williams mentioned that at the beginning of the school year, there was a teacher’s strike. She said she felt like she worked hard all four years and didn’t really get the senior year she wanted.

There have been several virtual graduation events to commemorate the Class of 2020, including YouTube’s “Dear Class of 2020,” which featured President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. In April, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that Oprah Winfrey would deliver the commencement address for the Chicago Public School Virtual Citywide Graduation, which was set for June 14.

Williams will matriculate to Jackson State University, a Historically Black College and University, in Jackson, Mississippi, where she plans to study criminal justice to become a criminal defense lawyer.

“I am big on social justice and I believe that every person has the right to have some sort of justice,” she said. “I want to come back to my hometown of Chicago and change things around here.”

Williams said she was not able to visit Jackson State University’s campus due to COVID-19. She is still looking forward to going to the university. College campuses across the country have been trying to figure out what an academic year during COVID-19 will look like as far as classes, housing and students on campus.

Williams said she chose criminal justice because she loves history and law and criminal justice seemed like a good career for her. “Criminal justice has a lot of history, justice overall has a lot of history. So, with that degree in criminal justice, that can help me help those people who are wrongfully convicted,” she said, adding she just wants to help improve the criminal justice system.

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