When Gisela Guymon graduated from Red Ross Classical High School with a modified ceremony during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 or started college in August without having had the freshman dorm experience, she felt like it was “the end of the world with few opportunities.”
“My classmates and I lost so much the last year of high school, and then my first year of college, I felt like there was no hope and no motivation,” she said last week. “I'm glad everyone tried to make the best of what it was, but it was really bad.”
Despite feeling depressed, Gaimon persevered.
As a senior mass communications major at North Carolina Central University, she is one of 25 students from a Historically Black College or University nationwide selected to AT&T's Dream in Black Rising Future Makers category.
Guymon said the national honor means a lot to her because she comes from a smaller town and goes to a smaller university.
“I never thought I would see my face associated with a million-dollar company like AT&T,” she said. “They can pick any 25 students. For them to sit there and go through 1,001 applications and look at my application and say, ‘This is the application,’ while they watch videos and read articles from other applications, that's unbelievable.”
The award honors HBCU students “from diverse backgrounds who demonstrate creativity, technical prowess and a commitment to leaving a legacy of community impact,” according to a press release.
Winners receive $5,000 each, an AT&T tablet with one year of free service, and access to a range of mentorship and advocacy opportunities in 2024.
Deciding on an HBCU
Guymon knew she wanted to attend an HBCU, but attending North Carolina Central was a last-minute decision, she said.
NCCU was one of the first colleges to accept her. But she said she wanted to keep her options open, so she waited and was also accepted to Spelman College, an HBCU in Atlanta, Georgia.
The day before she needed to make a decision, she saw a high school classmate's social media post about attending North Carolina Central University, citing it as the best college for them to start their “own legacy.”
“I woke up and said, 'I'm going to go to Central and I might go to Spelman for grad school,'” she said. “It was the best decision I ever made. Central is a family-oriented school. If I need someone in the middle of the night, I know I can call them.”
delivery
Guymon said her first year of college didn't start out cohesive due to the pandemic. She lived off campus and tended to only communicate with fellow students from Fayetteville.
However, an academic advisor encouraged her to meet other people and become a student leader at the beginning of her sophomore year.
“One of my mentors, an academic advisor at NCCU, told me, ‘The quickest way to fail is to live life alone,’ and I thought about all the moments I found myself failing, and that was when I was alone. It reminded me that you have to have community and you have to Have a village around you.
She said the advice carried over her past three years in college.
Gaymon is involved in the Student Government Association, is in the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority and is NCCU's senior class president.
She said she strives to make relationships, whether it's with a Chick-fil-A employee “who can later work in the corporate world,” or with others on campus.
She said the relationships she built with previous NCCU winners of the Rising Future Maker Award prompted her to apply for the same honor.
“It means a lot when people see the potential in you, and to be honest, if I hadn’t gone to Central, I don’t think I would have been in half the rooms I was in,” she said.
She said the support and connections encouraged Guymon to take risks.
Switch specializations
During her junior year, Guymon said, she changed majors.
“I come from a family of judges, police officers, military service people and the law, and when I first arrived at N.C. Central, I thought this was the path I was going to take,” she said. “I was trying to preserve the legacy, but I realized that was not me.”
Due to his interests in social media, photography, and videography, Jaymon decided to major in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations.
The decision meant she would spend an extra year at NCCU, graduating in December 2024 instead of last month, but it's another decision she doesn't regret.
She helps with marketing for her sorority, the Senior Class Council, and was just accepted for an internship through the T. Howard Foundation, an organization with a mission to “increase diversity in the media industry.”
“Just by following my heart, I saw a lot of change in just one year,” she said. “I can preserve my family's legacy by doing what I want to do while creating my own legacy. I'd rather be somewhere happy and doing the best work I can than somewhere where that's not my true passion.”
Why AT&T recognized this Fayetteville State University student as a Rising Future Maker
Optimistic about opportunities
Guymon said that while she is still figuring out what she wants to do in public relations, she gravitates toward creativity through photography, video, and graphic design.
She said she may attend graduate school after NCCU or she could start a small business, but helping others foster their passions will be at the heart of what she decides.
Compared to how she felt as a high school senior and college freshman, Guymon said she now believes the right opportunity will present itself when the time is right.
“Even if it's a day, two months, or three years, everything that exists for me is there waiting for me,” she said. “I'm a strong believer in that.”
Guymon, who has spent her life in North Carolina, said that being sent by AT&T to Dallas for the ceremony opened her mind to thinking about going to other states.
“There's something in my heart right now for Texas, whether it's Dallas or Houston, so we'll see,” she said. “I feel like there's something out there for me. Whenever I get the opportunity, I know I'll be grateful for it.”
Staff writer Rachel Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
