They say it takes a village to raise a child. Haley Johnson, 17, says it also takes a village’s support to graduate from high school early.
Johnson faced a lot of obstacles over the course of her three years at Page High School, from a virtual start her freshman year, extra classes each semester to finish her graduation requirements in time, and over a month’s worth of missed school due to illness during the last half of this year.
“I just had to make up in my mind, that if I wanted to see it (become true), I have to keep persevering, keep pushing through. Because failures give up and to succeed you have to keep going thorough some obstacles that seem too hard or too tough,” Johnson said.
With this head start on her next phase of life, Johnson will be taking classes at Guilford Tech Community College in hopes of becoming a crime-scene investigator. And while she won’t be performing anymore, Johnson will also come back to Page in the fall to coach the dance team.
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Since 2019, Johnson has been in charge of her own catering and events planning business and for the last few months has been working at expanding into non-profit work and increasing community outreach. She hopes to create a big sister-little sister program for local middle schoolers, starting with her alma mater, Western Guilford Middle.
“In middle school, I didn’t have a lot of support, except for my family of course,” Johnson said. “Some teachers (tried), but they weren’t really able to provide the help that I needed and wanted. I want to be able to provide what I wasn’t able to get to other youth.”
Johnson and the rest of the Page High School Class of 2023 graduated Saturday at the Greensboro Coliseum.
