Portia Polk has been described as a born leader.

A top student at West Charlotte High School, she played a leadership role in every club or organization she joined, including the National Honor Society, the Beta Club and the school’s varsity tennis team. She tutored students at Hornet’s Nest Elementary and became a mentor to a younger West Charlotte student.

In a class of 390, Polk is ranked in the top two. Her grade point average is 4.625, and she will learn today (Wednesday) whether she will graduate as valedictorian or salutatorian.

Polk makes no bones about her desire to leave as the  top student. But either way, she says, she will leave feeling good about her accomplishments.

“It’s very important to me,” she said. “That’s the one thing I have thought about since I knew what it meant to be valedictorian. But even if I am salutatorian I will feel that I have succeeded. It takes a lot to be number two in a class of 390.”

Centered. Matured. Focused. That’s how teachers and staff describe Polk.

“Absolutely outstanding,” said West Charlotte counselor Kimberly Anderson. “What really makes Portia special is her integrity. She is a students who’s true to her heart. She won’t take what you tell her for granted. She will question what you say, but in a respectful way. She is definitely a person who has values, morals.”

This fall, Polk will attend South Carolina State University on a full scholarship – the first in her immediate family to go beyond high school.

Although college was always in her sights, Polk said she did not always envision herself at an HBCU. She also was accepted at UNC Chapel Hill, N.C. State and Vanderbilt. But when South Carolina State offered a scholarship package valued at more than $100,000 – far more than any of the other schools had offered -- she decided the offer was too good to pass up.

“I’m really optimistic about it,” says said. “I just take it as a sign from God, honestly. Maybe it’s where I’m supposed to be.”

Polk said she wants to study biology, math or modern languages and later become a doctor –- a pediatrician, in fact. A career in pediatric medicine, she said, would combine two of her favorite things -- children and studying the human body.

Polk said she can sit for hours watching medical shows on television.

When asked what motivates her, Polk, one of two adopted children in a three-children family, did not hesitate with her response: “My mother,” she said. “Every since I was young she instilled in me my morals, my values – everything.”

Polk said her mother works driving Medicaid patients to doctor appointments, but she always stressed to her kids the importance of education.

Polk said she initially considered becoming a teacher but decided against it.
“Teachers don’t get as much respect as they deserve,” she said. “They are firing teachers now in CMS.”

Aside from her own career goals, Polk said she wants to be a mentor and role model. It would be her way, she said, of giving back.

“I pride myself in trying to succeed in everything I do,” she said. “I guess I do my best not to succumb to the stereotypes or the brands that have been put on us... Whatever you expect of yourself is what you should try to achieve.”

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