Seventy-two seniors at J.Z. George High School will graduate at commencement exercises Friday.
The graduation is scheduled for 7 p.m. on the school’s football field.
Justin Randle of Coila is the class valedictorian, and Mary Alana McKay of Carrollton is the salutatorian. On the ACT, they scored 27 and 22, respectively.
Both seniors found about their selection Tuesday.
Randle said he plans to use his speech to the graduating class to “recap my senior year and my high school years overall.”
Randle has been a student in the Carroll County School District since kindergarten. He plans to attend Mississippi State University and major in aerospace engineering.
Randle, a middle linebacker on the George football team, had played since seventh grade.
In addition, Randle has performed community service with a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps in Columbus over the past year.
He has been a member of the J.Z. George Beta Club throughout high school and is a member of the National Society of High School Scholars.
He attends Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church of Black Hawk and is a former choir member.
He is the son of Iberia and Lorenzo Randle and has a younger sister, Teddra, who is in eighth grade.
McKay said she intends for her speech to the graduating class to be uplifting.
“I tried to focus on the fear of the unknown in our future. I said a little bit about the tragedies and obstacles that we went through in losing one of our classmates,” she said, referring to fellow senior Kobe Purnell, who died in an automobile accident in April.
“I was just letting them know that tomorrow is not promised, like in Kobe’s case. I don’t want the fear of the unknown blocking them from being successful,” McKay said.
She will attend Holmes Community College in Grenada beginning this summer and will major in pre-pharmacy.
McKay is the recipient of an ACT Scholarship. Under that scholarship, tuition is free at Holmes.
“I’m planning on getting into the Honor Society so that I can get my university scholarship,” she said, adding that scholarship requires a grade point average of at least 3.0.
She said she hopes “my university will be completely free.”
McKay served on the high school’s Yearbook Committee and was a homecoming maid in 2016.
She is the daughter of Mary and Royce McKay and has two older brothers, former J.Z. George students Jake and Jonathan McKay.
She attended Bankston Elementary School in fourth, fifth and sixth grades before returning to Carroll County.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
