Elite ShawU Program Does It With Honors
RALEIGH — So many stories of student success at Shaw University somehow or another always trace back to its Honors Program.
White House HBCU Scholar Nakya Carter, for example — she’s in the Shaw University Honors Program.
“This program enables growth and professional development,” Carter said.
Several student-athletes on the university’s championship-winning volleyball and women’s soccer teams are in the Honors Program, under the direction of Paul-Arthur Pierre-Louis, Ph.D., whose approach is providing a runway positioning young people to takeoff and soar.
“This class has an overall GPA of 3.68,” Pierre-Louis boasted Tuesday in Thomas J. Boyd Chapel during the induction ceremony for 16 members of the Honors Program. That brings the number of program scholars to 16.
The senior class within the Honors Program joined the university’s academic elite during the pandemic with its associated challenges of online learning and decisions about vaccinations and so much uncertainty.
“Through the ups and downs, you remained resilient and persisted,” Pierre-Louis said.
Students in the Honors Program also receive guidance from Shaw University Dean of Academic Support Vanessa Raynor Moone, SLP.D.
Carter, the Shaw University senior class president, used her opportunity as the ceremony’s featured speaker to make it clear to the inductees that they’d just become part of a legit launching pad.
“Without this program, I wouldn’t have had many of the opportunities that I was able to endeavor on, including the White House, traveling, things of that sort,” she said.
Carter interned at the top television station in this market. She studied abroad in London. Her next stop after graduating in May is Los Angeles to pursue opportunities in the entertainment industry. She’ll tell you the Honors Program fueled all of that.
“If you do your work, if you go to class, if you turn in that assignment on time, and if you do the thing that keeps you up at night that you’re super passionate about, I promise you that success is right around the corner,” Carter said.
While the ceremony welcomed new members, it also was a time to begin saying goodbye to those who’ll graduate in a few weeks. Shaw University President Paulette R. Dillard, personable to the point of knowing students by name, said she’s going to miss this bunch.
“I can’t imagine not seeing them running around this campus — Nakya and Tamara and Mariah and Janell and Robert Sheppard,” Dillard said.
Dillard said she’ll keep tabs on the graduates and start forming similar bonds with the program’s underclassmen.
“You are the testament to what we do here at Shaw University,” Dillard said. “This ceremony is always so special to me because you are our academic champions.”
Shaw University President Paulette R. Dillard, Ph.D. (center) and Shaw University Honors Program Director Paul-Arthur Pierre-Louis, Ph.D. (far right) gather with students who will graduate from the Honors Program. They attended a ceremony welcoming new Honors Program members at Thomas J. Boyd Chapel April 16, 2024.
