One senior graduates from Rolesville High School
ROLESVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- High school graduations can be a big event, full of hundreds of students, but the graduating class at Rolesville High school Tuesday was much smaller than that.
One student graduated from Rolesville High School, in the school's first ever graduating class.
De'Nique Pickering was the lone graduate, who battled through extra challenges to walk across the graduation stage.
Proud parents and family members cheered as Pickering walked across the stage of the Rolesville High auditorium.
It was all pomp and circumstance for the school's first and only graduate in the class of 2015.
"De'Nique you are the first graduate of Rolesville High School," Ericka Lucas, Principal of Rolesville High School, said at the graduation ceremony. "I can confidently say that as long as you keep believing in yourself, it will be the first of many things to come."
The graduation almost didn't happen. Rolesville High is brand new, opening its doors just two years ago, and its first official senior class is supposed to graduate next year.
Pickering would have been a part of that class because she was behind a semester when she started school here, but teachers told her she could graduate on-time if she took extra course to catch up.
"It's kind of like I'm not really believing it until after it all happens," Pickering told ABC11 before the commencement ceremony started.
"Just like the only person. It's just like, it's like 'wow.' Really just one person graduating from school," she added.
She caught up with classes and not only that, she pushed ahead of her classmates after finishing courses online, making her Rolesville High's first, and so far only, graduate.
Pickering said she plans on going to college to study culinary arts, and she's competing for a scholarship to do so.
