It isn’t your race, gender or social status, but your character that determines your course in life, and nothing is impossible for those who dare to dream, focus, pray and act on their desires.

That was the message AT&T North Carolina President Cynthia Marshall delivered to Richmond and Scotland County students Thursday at Cole Auditorium.

“You are not the future - I am telling you that you are the present,” Marshall told the Early College students. “The world is turning right now because of you, and I truly believe that yours will be the generation that saves us all.”

Marshall was the keynote speaker in a program from the combined schools to celebrate Black History Month and the naming of Scotland Early College High School’s Amber Watkins as the Sandhills Regional Teacher of the Year.

Watkins will now compete with other regional winners to become the AT&T North Carolina Teacher of the Year.

Also on hand for the event were North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. June Atkinson, reigning North Carolina Teacher of the Year Jessica Garner and last year’s Sandhills Region Teacher of the Year Martha Anderson.

Marshall’s life story began in dire circumstances. She was the fourth child of six to a father and mother who relocated to the San Francisco Bay area from Alabama. They landed in the Eastern Hills Housing Project in Richmond, Calif., where they led an abusive home life and lived in a violent community.

“At a very young age, I witnessed my father shoot a man in the head in self-defense,” Marshall said. “Or, actually, probably more in defense of me because I was standing at his side. Everyone in my family dealt with the situation differently. I found refuge in my books and the classroom.”

In the seventh grade, her course would be set when her father abandoned the family, leaving only a mattress and an otherwise empty four-bedroom public housing apartment.

“He also left me with something I will never forget,” Marshall recalled. “He left me with his vision of my future, that I would be pregnant by 16, on drugs by 18 and end up living in the projects for the rest of my life. In short, ‘hookers in the street’ were the words he used to describe his vision for my younger sister and I.”

It was on that day, however, when Marshall made a vow to her younger sister that would set the course for the rest of her life.

She told her that she would be the first in her family to graduate from college, she would earn them a way out of the ghetto, and “I will be the president of something someday.”

From there, academic achievement became the hallmark of her adolescence, carrying her to high school valedictorian and on to a full academic scholarship at the University of California at Berkeley.

“A good education was my ticket out of the projects,” Marshall said. “In fact, a good education was my ticket out of the projects for my whole family, and it was my ticket all the way from the projects to the president’s office. Through the years, I faced many trials and tribulations, and yes, I didn’t have a traditional upbringing, but I always tell people that, for me, AT&T stands for ‘Anointed to Testify.’”

She left the students with the four-pronged plan of action she used along her life path: Dream, focus, pray and, finally, act.

“Young people, I don’t know what you will do, that is for you to determine,” Marshall said. “I don’t know what you will invent, and I don’t know what path you will take in life, but you will do great things in life. Of this, I am assured.”

In her address, Atkinson shared the achievements and brief biographies of four influential North Carolina African-Americans.

“I encourage you to show honor to all of the African-Americans who have done great things for our society by using your education, your creativity and your imagination to also do great things,” she told the students in her closing.

Afterwards, Atkinson commented on the accessibility of Marshall’s message and the support her corporation shows for public education in the state.

“Her message to students is one that really resonates because her message is, ‘I have lived a hard life and here I am president of AT&T, and if I can do it, you can do it. She would make a great classroom teacher because she relates really well to young people, and she is one of the most outstanding business partners we have with education in North Carolina.”

“The speech was excellent, and it really motivated all of us teenagers,” Richmond Early College High (REaCH) 11th grader Kyle Bright said. “It’s something teenagers need to hear every day, not just one day in Black History Month.”

For Bright’s classmate and aspiring CEO of a video game company Justin Evans, the speech was a call to action.

“What I took away from the speech was to strive for something you have to really work for it,” Evans said. “She stayed in school and became President of AT&T. If I stay in school maybe I can do something even bigger, or at least on the same level with her. I really want to achieve something in life.”

“This was just fantastic, and I hope our students will embrace this message and take it into the classroom with them,” REaCH Principal Lawanda Walker said. “I hope they will remember those four simple words: dream, focus, pray and act.”

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.