Quanetti Nash, a graduating senior at Myers Park High School, always felt she’d miss something if she didn’t attend school.
So starting in kindergarten, she made up her mind to have perfect attendance. She did it again in the first grade, and then again in the second, third and fourth. It continued like that for 13 straight years.
Today, Nash was honored at her school for having zero absences for her entire academic career. That’s 2,340 days of not missing a class.
At a 10 a.m. ceremony, Nash sat in a school conference room at the head of a long table in a pink and white flowery tube dress. She smiled nervously as Principal Tom Spivey presented her with the Perfect Attendance Award and a spring bouquet of flowers.
A host of Nash’s family members, teachers and faculty also came to recognize her achievement.
Maj. Douglass Willie, her JROTC instructor, called Nash a “mentor for other cadets.” Sandra Kindell, her school counselor, recognized Nash for exemplifying “what it means to be a Myers Park Mustang.”
“She has a great attitude,” Brian Tarr, Nash’s AP English teacher said. “It’s not what she.JPG?resize=300%2C225)
did, but how she did it.”
When Nash was in kindergarten, her mother told her about a cousin who got a scholarship for not missing any days of school. “I had never seen anyone else do that before, and I knew I could do it,” Nash recalled.
She said that even when she got sick and her mother, Agnes Nash, would urge her to stay home, she inspired herself to go to school.
Agnes Nash said her daughter is self-determined: “She knew what she wanted and went after it.”
Nash didn’t even miss “Senior Skip Day,” a designated day that seniors are allowed to miss. “This year was the hardest,” she said. “Because of all the senior activities and leaving early. I had to stay.”
This fall Nash will attend East Carolina University and study to be a pediatric assistant. She volunteered at Presbyterian Hospital for four years.
“I love children,” she said.
Nash won’t be going to ECU empty-handed. Of the many scholarships she will receive, one is from JROTC and another is from the Charlotte Post Foundation.
Nash, her counselor and her mother are still counting the scholarship total.
“I knew one day it would pay off,” she said.
Once in college, Nash said, she hopes to keep the streak alive.
