By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer

Whiteville High School graduate Brooke Fisher is the school’s fourth recipient of the W. Roger Soles Scholarship – a nearly full ride at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I feel honored to be the recipient of the Soles Scholarship,” said Fisher, the daughter of Lisa Weathers Fisher and the late Leo Kevin Fisher. “It is one of the greatest accomplishments in my life. This is something that I have been working toward since starting school.”

She is the granddaughter of the late Garland and Mary Lou Weathers and Leo White Fisher and the late Cleone Woodell Fisher.

“I was very excited when I found out I had won it,” she said. “Mr. Ramey called me out of class into his office and surprised me with the news. I was so overwhelmed with joy that I smiled from ear to ear for the rest of the school day.”

Kyle Ramey was the principal at WHS until he retired last month.

“I chose Carolina because I want to pursue a doctorate degree in pharmacy and because it is a great university,” she said. “My plans are to obtain a doctorate degree in pharmacy in hope to some day open my own pharmacy, maybe even in Whiteville.”

She said that graduating as WHS’ 2007 valedictorian was just the icing on the cake.
“I had worked so hard since my freshman year to keep my grades up,” she said. “It just feels great to see my hard work pay off.”

Fisher said it was hard and stressful to stay in the top spot.

“The top three in the class were always so close together, and we were all in the same classes,” she said. “We were in competition with each other every single day.
“I soon learned that every single point counted towards something. I had many late nights of studying and stressful days of tests. I just did the best I could and hoped for the best.”

She said that while she understood living in a small town has its disadvantages, WHS provided her with a wonderful education.

“WHS has many great teachers who are willing to help out in any way,” she said. “Unlike some teachers in larger schools, WHS teachers are able to help every child on a personal level. I think WHS has prepared me with the best education I could have received anywhere.”

She said that her favorite class at WHS had been Advanced Placement Biology with Tom Ferguson.

“Mr. Ferguson brought out the best in people and made you feel like you were capable of anything,” she said. “I loved the material and I especially loved the way Mr. Ferguson taught it. He made it fun and easy to learn, and he could explain anything. I am very grateful that I took the class and that I had an awesome teacher like Mr. Ferguson.”

And her favorite WHS activity?

“There is a tie between marching band and dance team,” she said. “Being in marching band for the past four years has been so much fun. It is so amazing how 180 people with different personalities can come together and put on a show like one of ours.

“And I can’t even begin to describe the feeling of marching onto the football field on those chilly Friday nights and hearing the whole crowd screaming for you. It gave me chills every time.

“I know that what I’m going to miss most are those Friday nights. There’s nothing else like it. Dance Team was a new thing at WHS, and I’m so glad I was involved in it.

“We had awesome coaches who cared a whole lot about us. Even though we weren’t accepted by everyone, we proved that we were an asset to WHS by winning competitions and supporting our Wolfpack in everything.”

Fisher said her mother has been her prime inspiration.

“Throughout the years, my mother has been my major inspiration because no matter all the hardships she has had in her life, she overcame them and raised three good kids,” she said. “She’s my role model, and I hope to be as successful in life as she has been.”

She said the only area WHS came up short was in the flexibility of classes.
“I wanted to be a part of the spring plays so badly, but because of my academic schedule, I was unable to,” she said.

Her activities at WHS included Spanish Club, HOSA, National Honor Society, WHS Marching Band, WHS Pep Band, WHS Concert Band, Columbus County All-County Band and Dance, the dance team, cheerleading, softball, soccer, prom committee and chief marshal.

She was voted most likely to succeed and most academic.

She was an academic superstar and honored by the President’s Education Awards Program.

She was a North Carolina Scholar, a Student of the Year nominee and the school’s Morehead and Parks scholarships nominee.

Outside of school, she was a Whiteville Juniorette and is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

She danced for the 15 years at Wanda’s School of Dance and Gymnastics.

In addition to the Soles Scholarship, she received the Carolina Covenant, a merit and need-based scholarship that will cover 100 percent of her college expenses beyond the Soles Scholarship.

She also received the National Honor Society Scholarship, the Dixie Softball Tim Neely Memorial Scholarship, the Ruth McDow Baldwin Scholarship and the New Hope Community Scholarship.

The Soles Scholarship was created five years ago when William R. Soles Jr. and M. Janette Soles made a $600,000 contribution to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Scholars Program in honor of their father, the late W. Roger Soles, the former Jefferson-Pilot chairman and chief executive, who graduated from WHS as its valedictorian at age 14.

The Soles Scholarship gives preference to students from Whiteville High School, Columbus County and other schools in the eastern region of North Carolina.

W. Roger Soles graduated from Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in commerce in 1947. He joined Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co. in Greensboro as a securities analyst and became chairman and chief executive in 1967. He served in this position for 26 years.

Fisher is the fourth WHS recipient of the Soles Scholarship.

In 2002, Manish Dayal was the first WHS recipient. The following year, WHS senior Hunter Diefes received it. For the next two years, the scholarship went to students upstate. Last year, it returned to Whiteville when Michael Houser received it.