Amira Trotter has her bucket list filled out with plenty of room for additions as she navigates through her freshman year at Hopkinsville High School.
Amira stays busy. She is a Hopkinsville High School cheerleader, a member of the National Honor Society, is in the school’s gifted and talented academic program, and has played the trumpet in the band.
She is also self-taught on a variety of stringed instruments.
Despite her busy schedule, Amira has A’s and B’s on her report card and finds time to juggle her academic and extra-curricular schedule.
“At first, I thought it would be hard, but it hasn’t been as long as you just stay focused,” she said. “I usually make time for myself to focus on my grades and my work.”
Amira is also part of the Hopkinsville Community College Upward Bound program, part of the Federal TRIO Program that is designed to identify and provide services for first-generation students to help increase academic preparation, motivation, and social skills necessary to enter, complete and succeed in a secondary education program.
In September, Amira was asked to make some comments and reflections at the unveiling of a statute honoring the life of bell hooks at Hopkinsville Community College. A native of Hopkinsville, hooks was an acclaimed author, professor, and activist.
Hooks wrote under the pen name bell hooks after her great-grandmother Bell Blair Hooks. She wrote her name in lowercase letters to address systemic injustice and prejudice against Black people.
It was a day that was very important to Amira.
“It was important because we’re talking about a female activist who is also an African-American. I learned about her books and how much she impacted our community and it gives me the focus I need for my dream and makes me more motivated,” she said.
Amira is an active member of the Cedar Grove Baptist Church. Her parents are Brittany and Sheldon Trotter, and she has three younger brothers which makes it important for her to lead by example.
“I really want them to look up to me and be like ‘if she can do that, so can I’ and be motivated to do the things they want to do,” she said.
As far as who motivated Amira in school? She looks back at her seventh-grade year at Hopkinsville Middle School.
“Mrs. (Kathy) Powers, my English teacher, always motivated me, always told me words of encouragement, and had a big impact on me.”
As she begins her high school career, Amira is keeping an eye on the future. She knows good grades come first. She wants to be involved in more clubs and get to know more people. She hopes to take the ACT for the first time this weekend but that may have to wait as Hopkinsville High will be competing at the state cheer competition in Winchester.
It’s just part of the balancing act that Amira pulls off with ease as she looks to make her mark on her school and community in the years to come.
One Response
Awesome job Amira . You are headed for Greatness or should I say YOU ARE GREATNESS. Blessings BLESSINGS BLESSINGS