With a grade-point average approaching 3.8 and a standing in the top 10 percent of her senior class at Grady High School, Brianna Fairley had college options.
One of those options was always Alabama State University, the historically black university located in Montgomery.
Alabama State is, in a very real sense, in Fairley's DNA.
Her grandparents met at the campus and, later, so did her parents. Fairley's childhood and that of her younger sister included Alabama State sporting events. Go, Hornets, go!
"We've grown up around the football games," Fairley said.
But Alabama State wasn't her only college option. She was considering Georgia State, the downtown school with a vast set of academic offerings that would be closer to home.
Fairley applied for a scholarship at Alabama State and in February, she got a call from the school on her cellular phone: The scholarship was hers. A full ride, worth $85,000 now but likely to grow in value to $100,000. There would be a free laptop and an annual stipend of $1,000.
Her mother, Susan Buskey Fairley, was nearby when Brianna got the call.
"When I told her I got the scholarship, my mom, she looked at me and said, ‘I know,'" Brianna said.
Her parents had learned a week or so earlier that their daughter was going to be awarded the scholarship. The president of the university came to Grady High on Wednesday to personally award it to her.
She plans to study physical therapy at Alabama State. And she'll recognize the name on the building where many of her classes will be held. It belongs to her grandfather, John L. Buskey, who took his ASU degree to the Alabama Legislature, where he served for nine years before his death in 1992.
Brianna Fairley is an Alabama State Hornet. She's always been one.
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