Roy Anderson usually knows what’s coming when his youngest daughter seems pensive.
“What’s the matter?” he’ll ask.
She’ll sigh and say something like, “Got a B on a test today.”
It cracks Anderson up. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he’ll say, laughing. Afton Anderson will laugh, too, though she carries a load of expectations as heavy as the textbook-filled backpack she lugs around on wheels.
The expectations come from her parents. And from church members, many of them school teachers who name their dream colleges and say, “Go for me.”
The toughest expectations come from Afton herself. “The way I see it, an A-minus is like failing,” she said.
It doesn’t happen often. She ranks fourth in the senior class at Lee’s Summit High School.
Afton enrolled in Lee’s Summit schools after completing fourth grade in the Kansas City School District, moving in with an older sister.
Her parents later won a legal battle when the Lee’s Summit district tried to exclude Afton on residency grounds.
Roy Anderson earned a four-year degree in Arkansas. But Afton’s mother and three older siblings didn’t complete college. That’s a big part of the reason they wanted her in an academically strong school district.
Afton has long had her sights on Howard University, the historically black college in Washington.
But with the realities of costs and distance setting in, she’s also looking at schools closer to home. She’s been accepted at the University of Arkansas.
Afton, a self-described procrastinator, gets essential help from her guidance counselor.
“I have to keep tabs on her,” Chris Homan said.
He works with about 375 students, 85 of them seniors. It’s a juggling act.
“You may have Afton in here thinking about college, and the next student may be thinking about suicide,” Homan said.
He makes time to keep current on admissions policies and scholarships. The reward is seeing students like Afton achieve their dreams.
Her college choice eventually will come down to financing. She plans to study accounting, and someday wants to open her own firm. The numbers will decide her next big step.
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