Rockingham County Schools News Release • May 29, 2025
Rockingham County Schools is proud to recognize the outstanding achievements and bright futures of the Class of 2025. In this special Senior Spotlight series, Rockingham County Schools highlight students from Rockingham Early College High School who have demonstrated excellence, leadership, resilience, and school spirit throughout their high school journey.
Each student featured in these spotlights shares their unique story, accomplishments, and plans for the future. We’re honored to help celebrate their success and share these personal profiles with our community.
Be sure to scroll through the full spotlight to see all of this year’s inspiring seniors from Rockingham Early College High School.
Kennidy Kirby
My name is Kennidy Kirby, I am 17 years old, and I am from Reidsville, North Carolina. I transferred to Rockingham Early College my junior year of school from Northern Guilford High School. I am currently a senior and I am a part of the National Honor Society, Varsity softball team, and the women’s golf team. For my future, I plan to attend Averett University as a student athlete, majoring in biology and playing softball. In my free time, I enjoy hanging out with my friends and spending time with my family.
I have had the opportunity to be in a largely populated high school of 2,000 plus students and be in a school with less than one hundred students in my grade. The small school size of RECHS has given me much closer relationships with my teachers and my classmates. I am not just a face in the crowd at this school, but instead a valued part of the community. Everytime I see my principal she greets me with a smile and asks me how I am doing, something that never happened to me at my old high school. The students here are given freedom with responsibility to schedule their own classes, with guidance, and take college classes and earn college credits which is a huge opportunity and will help put the students ahead for my future endeavors.
As a first generation college student, my family and I are navigating the college process with the help of my counselors and the rest of the school staff. One of the benefits of RECHS is taking college courses with no expense. I wish I would have had the chance to transfer here sooner because of this fact alone. Overall, the early college provides students with opportunities not a lot of others would get, their students have the chance to earn an associates degree and a high school diploma which puts them way ahead of their peers. You are not just a number at this school, but instead a person that they want to get to know.
Cooper Martin
Cooper Martin is a graduating senior at Rockingham Early College High School. Throughout his high school career, he has excelled in athletics, academics, and service. He works as a tutor in the Academic Resource Center at RCC. He was also a member of the Morehead High School basketball team and served as captain of the Morehead High School Cross Country team. Within his school and local community, he serves as chair of the Eden City Youth Council, vice president of RECHS National Honor Society, vice president of Public Relations in Phi Theta Kappa, and a member of the RECHS Student Government. He is optimistic and believes in seeing the positive in people and any circumstance. The benefits he has come to relish from being a RECHS student are the teachers and professors he has had the pleasure of meeting, and being a part of his zonal school, Morehead High School, through athletics for the past four years. These amazing people are what have created his fondest memories. The advice he would give to his fellow peers is to be resilient and always remain positive. After graduating with a high school diploma and associate’s degree in science, Cooper will attend UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall and will be part of the Honors Carolina program. He plans to major in biomedical engineering with the goal of attending medical school to become a Primary Care Physician.
Makayla Hairston
Growing up I never even considered how I could become the best version of myself, nor how I could encourage others to do the same. When I first came to the Rockingham Early College campus, I had no idea how much self-growth I would endure. I grew up watching my mother not be able to stand up for herself, whether it came to men, authority, and/or drugs. She struggled not only financially but mentally as well, all because she had no one to stand up for her when she was going through the most primitive years of her life. In turn, this made me want to be the one to show her that she did have someone who cared and who could stand strong, despite external factors. When I was 12 years old, I was involved in a drive-by shooting that would forever alter my life. At the time, I did not understand the impact hearing gunshots and being inches from my own death could have on me, but now, as a senior in high school, I can say I am thankful for it. Many people say that statistically, I should have turned to numbing mechanisms to hide the pain and PTSD I experienced. I would consider that true, but for some reason, that idea never crossed my mind. In turn, I put my focus on bettering myself in every angle of life. I learned how to stand up for myself to the point where I could proudly stand my ground in front of a grown man, and I learned how to express my emotions healthily. I should have had so much anger towards the men who shot at my home, but I forgave them. We are all trying to do what we think is best on this earth and sometimes we make mistakes, and I just happened to be the victim of one.
I took this knowledge with me into high school, as instead of dwelling in the past, I found my passion in health and fitness. I began swimming for Morehead High School and had an amazing 4-year journey of bettering my performance, building relationships, and learning more about myself. Taking the hurt and anger I had from my childhood and placing it into something that would elevate me in life is something I would never regret. Rockingham Early College High School has provided me with endless opportunities, and despite the odds of a low-income family, I am proud to say I am committed to UNC-Chapel Hill on a full-ride scholarship. Never in a million years would I have thought I would be saying those words, but the universe works in amazing ways. I am finally able to show my mom the daughter she raised during the most difficult times of her life, showing her that no matter what we go through (together or alone), we can push through with confidence. One life lesson I learned over time is this: you will be content wherever you are as long as you believe in yourself. Putting trust in yourself (thoughts and actions) will lead you to where you want to be in life, just trust the process.
I’d like to take a moment and give my appreciation to the faculty and staff at Rockingham Early College High School for making my academic future possible and for providing me with the knowledge to pursue a career in Sports Psychology. I would also like to mention Mrs. Julia Tatum, my guidance counselor, for believing in and supporting me, writing many reference letters for scholarships/college applications, and being someone I could vent to about the issues of a teenage girl. I pray that every teenager, and adult, going through life, can find strength within themselves to push themselves one step more, and another step after that. We will never see our full potential until we try.
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