Jessica Tolliver moved with her family to Hattiesburg from the country near Progress, outside of Magnolia, Mississippi. Leaving the South Pike school district, she joined with other students who parents wanted them to have a good education with a Christian foundation.

Next September, most will blend in at area university and college campuses, as freshmen starting on their next academic challenge.

But on Sunday, 23 high school kids stood out. They represent the first graduating high school class in their school’s history: Alpha Christian School, a ministry of Mount Carmel Baptist Church on Main Street in Hattiesburg.

For head mistress Tonyia Benton, niece of Mount Carmel’s pastor, the Rev. Kenneth Fairley, it was a moment to be savored.

“I’m excited. All last night, I kept saying ‘dreams do become true. They do become a reality,’” she said.

Those dreams took a while to be realized. Alpha Christian opened its doors 21 years ago during a Hattiesburg teachers’ strike, with a mission to provide an academic and spiritual alternative for area children. At the time it had five students, she said.

Today, it has approximately 300. Originally a kindergarten, the school expanded to high school in 2005, with the first ninth-grade class. Since then it has added a class each year.

Along the way, it picked up students looking for new opportunities or a fresh start.

Raycory Wiley, 18, transferred to Alpha Christian two years ago in order to play offensive line for the football team.

Now he heads to Southern Miss, with law rather than sports, on his mind. Wiley said he plans to major in pre-law, crediting teachers such as Addie Stover with giving him the drive to go on.

“She pushed me to my limit,” he said.

For students - such as Jentre Crawford - expelled last November for vandalizing West Marion High School in Columbia, Alpha Christian represented a second chance.

Mother Diana Crawford said that her son quitting school was not an option.

“It would have been easy for him (Crawford) just to take the GED, but we wanted him to get his high school diploma,” she said.

The challenge of getting that diploma didn’t just involve school books. Jentre commuted from Columbia to Hattiesburg each day to attend school.

A fresh atmosphere and disciplined teaching techniques helped him get to this day, she said. “The sacrifices have been well worth it.”

During the commencement, Ward 2 Councilwoman Deborah Delgado and Mayor Johnnie DuPree gave the special exhortations. DuPree offered a bit of historical perspective for the new graduates.

“When Pastor Fairley and I graduated 37 years ago, we could only dream of doing one or two or three things,” he said. “You can do anything if you believe.”

But the salutatorian Kindala Mitchell showed that the lesson had already been absorbed, as she urged her students to embrace their dreams.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we see,” she said. “Do not leave this place and let your hard work go to waste - act.

This is not the end. This is just the beginning.”
Tolliver is planning to go to college to study law.

Lonnie Ross - Mississippi Tribune contributed to this article.