Hardaway High School senior wins Georgia Youth Leadership Award
After originally declining to apply for the prestigious award because she thought she wasn’t accomplished enough, a Muscogee County School District student is now considered one of the state’s top youth leaders.
Hardaway High School senior Caylin Carter is among the 21 winners of the 2019 Georgia Youth Leadership Award, given by 21st Century Leaders, a nonprofit organization based in Decatur, Ga.
A selection committee comprised of people from the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 under 40, 21st Century Leaders Board of Directors and alumni, as well as other corporations, evaluated the applicants based various factors.
Those factors included their impact on their schools and communities, passion and their ‘forward-thinking,’ according 21st Century Leaders executive director Kate Hewitt.
When she received the email informing her that she was selected, Caylin said, “I was shocked. My mouth was open for a good maybe 10 minutes. I’m running around the house. I was like, ‘Mom! I can’t believe this!’”
Caylin has a 4.05 grade-point-average and is ranked in the top 20 percent of her class. Her activities at Hardaway have included Future Business Leaders of America (chapter vice president and secretary), National Beta Club, National Spanish Honor Society, International Baccalaureate Council, Hawk Talk student newspaper, marching band, and color guard lead manager.
Ash Snow, the International Baccalaureate coordinator at Hardaway, told Caylin about the award program during her sophomore year. She thought, “I don’t have a chance. Most of the kids I’ve met through 21st Century Leaders, they’ve started nonprofits, they’re out there saving the world, and my project didn’t seem like as great as their projects.”
But then she won Hardaway’s Literature Student of the Year award that spring.
“It changed everything,” she said. “I never looked toward any award. My freshman year, I wasn’t even invited to the awards ceremony.”
The win gave her confidence. “Wow, I’m kind of good at this. … There’s no ceiling for me.”
“What impresses me the most about Caylin is the persistent dedication and determination with which she approaches everything she does, coupled with the grace with which she does it,” said Snow. “Everyone around her sees that she is working hard for what she believes in, and as a result they are drawn to her as a leader.”
Projects
From 2017-2018, Caylin led three other Hardaway students, Ambra Dixon, Cece Chauhan and Charles Jackson, in an effort to collect $300 for Damascus Way shelter for women and children in Columbus.
They conducted three fundraisers: a yard sale, a car wash and a movie night at the school. They learned how to coupon to stretch that money to buy supplies for shelter residents, such as toiletries and diapers. They also produced a video to show 56 shelter families how to do coupon themselves.
Caylin shared with them the thrifty shopping skills she learned while growing up in a home with her single mother, grandmother and disabled sister.
“I never pay retail for anything,” she said.
Caylin extended her connection to the shelter by helping fellow members of the Youth Advisory Council of Columbus start a service project for Damascus Way as well.
Carter also volunteered at Reese Road Leadership Academy. She was interested in helping elementary school students learn about journalism, and she heard that RRLA didn’t have a journalism club. That’s when she created one.
“I wanted them to create something for them and by them,” she said.
Since August, the RRLA journalism club has met once a month to create a monthly newsletter about school and community activities.
Her ultimate career goal is being a political reporter or commentator for CNN.
“I’ve always loved watching the news,” she said. “I just like communicating with people on a broader form. It’s one thing to have a conversation with somebody, but you’re getting to everybody and you touch so many more people.”
Caylin added, “It’s important to know about the truth of what’s going on as soon as possible. … Everybody should be educated in what’s going on.”
With all of this on her resume, she decided to apply for the Georgia Youth Leadership Award.
The selection process included an essay and an interview. Caylin couldn’t get to Atlanta because her mother couldn’t take off from work to drive her there, so she was able to be interviewed via computer.
Caylin was among the approximately 100 students selected for the 21st Century Leaders one-week summer program in Atlanta. She spent her week learning about media.
She visited Turner Broadcasting and CNN. The students worked on a project focusing on how to boost TV audience involvement. They presented their projects on the last day, and her group finished in third place.
A blessing, not a burden
While succeeding in school and in the community, Caylin continues to devote time to her 31-year-old sister, Chanta, who needs 24/7 care.
“I’m a lot more mature than I thought I was,” she said. “I get told all the time. Caylin, you’re such a mom.’”
The past two years, Caylin also has worked at the Chick-fil-A.
“I didn’t want to ask my mom for money all the time,” she said, “because I knew she has other things to worry about.”
With one car in the family, she often takes a city bus to and from work.
Her duties are a blessing, not a burden, Caylin said.
“It kind of made me who I am,” she said. “I had to do a lot more than the average person, so I had a lot more experience and I had a lot less time for all the trouble everybody else was getting into.”
Caylin said her motto is “by any means necessary.”
Caylin’s mother, Lisa Carter, considered all that her daughter has achieved and said, “I’m just so proud, just so proud.”
Lisa, who works as a receptionist, said, “I didn’t go to college. I want her to do better than what I did. I just want her to go as far as she can.”
Caylin has been awarded a $10,000 merit scholarship to attend Clark Atlanta University, where she plans to major in broadcast journalism and minor in African-Amercian studies.
“I fell in love with the campus and the atmosphere when I visited the open house.”
Meanwhile, as a Georgia Youth Leadership Award winner, Caylin is being mentored by one of the Atlanta Business Chronicle 40 Under 40 alumni.
Her mentor is Chandra Farley, director of Just Energy at the Partnership for Southern Equity, which works to “educate and engage low-income communities and communities of color about the sourcing and commodification of power generation in Georgia,” according to its website.
“In addition to her clear commitment to community through many volunteer activities, I was impressed by her ability to create direct community benefit through the use of a traditional tool like couponing,” Farley told the Ledger-Enquirer. “It’s a wonderful example of combining passion and purpose for impact.”
Farley said Caylin “has a warm and driven personality. I know that she will be successful in any endeavor she undertakes and look forward to watching her star rise.”
Despite her responsibilities at home, school and work, Caylin still insists on performing community service.
“It’s beyond me. It’s never just about me. At the end of the day, one day I’m not going to be at Hardaway, I won’t be in Columbus, I won’t be here. I have to leave that impact” said Carter.
“I, at least, want to be able to say that I led the future to somewhere else. Having that impact on other people is what makes the world a better place.”
Mark Rice, 706-576-6272, @MarkRiceLE.
This story was originally published April 2, 2019 at 12:07 PM.
