Remembering

Eve

Above: A CONNECTIVE SMILE: 2004 Clarke Central High School graduate and valedictorian Eve Carson was able to befriend all types of people during her time at CCHS. “You didn’t have to be Eve’s best friend for her toconnect with you ... she had a connective smile,” CCHS Principal Dr. Maxine Easom said. Next page: Left: STUDENT LEADER: Eve Carson swings on a tree on campus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,posing for photos for her 2007 campaign for student body president. “Eve made a huge difference as UNC’s student body president,” current UNC freshman and 2007 CCHS graduate Lateefah Gresham said. Right: RESTAND RELAXATION: Eve Carson takes a moment to meditate while traveling in Cairo. Being a Morehead-Cain scholar allowed Carson to travel to countries including Cuba, Egypt and Ecuador.

Photo courtesy of The Daily Tarheel

gifts for Operation Christmas Child, a volunteerproject associated with Samaritan’s Purse.Through such projects, Carson was able to lead themembers of NHS with enthusiasm, including heryounger brother, CCHS 2005 graduate AndrewCarson.

“I have a recollection of that crew down in myroom with presents and wrapping paper and rib-bon all over the place,” Harris said. “Oh, they had awonderful time! Eve’s presents were not the pretti-est, and Andrew’s weren’t at all. But they had a ter-rific time wrapping them up!”.....Carson was also involved in StudentGovernment Association at CCHS, and becamestudent body president her senior year......Through SGA, Carson encouraged others,including CCHS 2007 graduate Lateefah Gresham,to become active leaders within the school. FormerSGA sponsor and English teacher Mark Dupreeintroduced Gresham, then a freshman, to Carson inorder to get her involved in SGA.

“After talking with (Eve) for about two min-utes, she was like, ‘You’re perfect for the position!You should run,’” Gresham said. “So I ran, won andworked with her throughout the remainder of theyear.”

As Carson’s neighbor since childhood, CCHSjunior Emma McLeod was inspired by her passionand involvement in activities such as NHS andSGA.

“Eve was always my role model. I always lookedup to her because she was like, perfect,” McLeodsaid. “Everyone in the neighborhood knew her andrespected her because she was the most well-rounded person.”

But Carson’s enthusiasms extended beyond herareas of strength.

“Eve played soccer, and she played it with avengeance, but she wasn’t the greatest soccer play-er in the world,” Easom said.

“If you look at pictures of Eve, she had reallylong arms and really long legs and she was just likelegs and arms all over the place. Her friends wouldjoke that she couldn’t keep track of the ballbecause her legs would be out in front of her,” Millssaid.

While soccer was not Carson’s strongest suit,Easom admired her willingness to play andimprove.

“We tend to think that Eve was perfect at every-thing she did. But what she was perfect at in thatsituation was that she played soccer like she wasthe best soccer player on the field,” Easom said.“She wasn’t, but she played it like she was, whichmade her play pretty decently. She had that capac-

Foreign Language Department Chair Jim Joneswas impressed with Carson’s language skills in APSpanish, but more striking, he said, was her dedi-cation to her academic pursuits.

“She certainly had lots of academic talents. Shewas able to make wonderful grades in her classesseemingly effortlessly,” Jones said. “There weretimes when I know she had to really work. It was-n’t effortless, but she made it seem that way.”

Science Department Chair Buddy Sims, whotaught Carson both ACP and AP Biology, alsonoticed her intellectual perseverance.

“She just truly enjoyed learning, whatever it was,she enjoyed learning it,” Sims said. “She wasalways willing to do whatever it would take tolearn stuff, but, again, not for any ulterior motive -- she just really wanted to know more.”

Carson came into biology class every day with anew question, Sims said. Her textbook was linedwith sticky notes, on which she scribbled theanswers to her questions before generating newones.

“I can just see her sittingat her desk with her biolo-gy book full of Post-itnotes and just every day,‘Mr. Sims, I have a ques-tion,’” Sims said. “It wasalways something verythoughtful and somethingshe wanted to know more about. But that was theway she was all the time.”

Carson’s determination and inquisitive naturealso propelled her extracurricular life. Amongnumerous other activities, Carson was an activemember of NHS from her sophomore year until hersenior year, when she was elected president of theorganization.

“(Eve) had a huge leadership role in NHS. Shealways wanted to do something new, and I thinkshe went to every single volunteer opportunitythat was possible,” Julia Mills, CCHS 2005 gradu-ate, said.

As a leader in NHS, Carson inspired Mills tobecome involved in the Athens communitythrough service projects and stay involved afterleaving high school.

“I think she really encouraged me to get involvedin volunteer stuff, and I’m still really involved inthe Athens community,” Mills said. “Because shepresented so many different opportunities andmade them fun, she could describe anything andmake you want to go.”

NHS sponsor Ellen Harris agreed that Carson’senthusiasm made others eager to participate inservice activities through NHS.

“People just wanted to do what Eve wanted todo because she was fun and she had so much fundoing things,” Harris said. “When she liked some-thing, she just loved it, and she’d tell everybodyabout it. I think that’s something people reallyappreciated about her -- her ability to draw otherpeople along with her enthusiasms.”

Harris recalled the members of NHS wrapping

When EveC a r s o ngraduated

from Clarke CentralHigh School as vale-

dictorian in 2004, staff and students marveled ather accomplishments, both academic andextracurricular. Only four years earlier, Carson hadbegun her career at CCHS, quietly becominginvolved in school activities, unknowingly estab-lishing a legacy of excellence.

“I found myself one day realizing that there wasthis beautiful girl who was always with people youdidn’t necessarily expect her to be with, doingthings you didn’t expect her to be doing,” CCHSPrincipal Dr. Maxine Easom said. “But she wasalways doing some kind of project, getting thisgoing or that going. Suddenly I realized, ‘Who isthis child that keeps being around and gettingthings going?’”

The “child” Easom noticed was Carson, then afreshman, who would later be elected to home-coming court, play several sports, attend theGovernor’s Honors Program, and serve as bothpresident of National Honor Society and studentbody president. But even as an underclassman,those who knew Carson recognized her potential.

Counselor Sam Hicks came to CCHS in 2001,when Carson was a sophomore, and noticed heralmost instantly.

“I was young and fresh out of college and stillnaive, but I could immediately see that there wassomething really special about this kid,” Hickssaid. “There was kind of a buzz around her andabout her, and it was all legit. She was that bright,and she was that cool.”

Before coming to CCHS as a freshman, Carson,a graduate of Clarke Middle School, spent a semes-ter in Seville, Spain with her mother. This experi-ence allowed Carson to be immersed in theSpanish culture and language, and she enrolled inAP Spanish her sophomore year.

On March 5, 2008, Clarke Central High School 2004 graduat

student body president Eve Carson was killed in a residenti

Hill, NC. Now, Weeks after her death, CCHS students and st

her smile and her ability to connect with all kinds of peop

Story and Layout Bryan BarksFeatures Editor

Photo courtesy of www.facebook.com,

“When she liked something, she just lovedit, and she’d tell everybody about it.”

-- Ellen Harris,Foreign Language department teacher

24

“Thmo

duate, valedictorian and former

ential neghborhood in Chapel

d staff remember her talents,

people.

ity -- she never thought she couldn’t do or should-n’t do.”

Although Carson was talented and confident invarious areas, Jones never saw Carson’s peers dis-play any resentment towards her.

“I did not see the jealousy that sometimes yousee. I don’t know why,” Jones said. “Her smilecomes to mind -- you can’t have any negative feel-ings when she gives you that smile, and she gave itto everybody.”

McLeod agreed that Carson’s friendly personal-ity made it difficult to begrudge her successes.

“She was one of those people you would hatenormally because they’re such an overachiever andgood at everything they do, but there was no wayyou could hate Eve because she was so amazinglysweet and nice,” she said.

Carson’s genuine nature and self-assurednessalso contributed to her likeability, Harris said.

“For people in general, but for teenagers in par-ticular, they spend a lot of time thinking not ofwhat they’re doing but how people are reacting towhat they do,” Harris said. “Eve had none of that.She was just what she was.”

In fact, Hicks said, Carson’s strong sense of selfallowed her to transcend social divides withinCCHS.

“Typically, if you see somebody who has all thesethings going for her -- she’s brilliant, she’s a beau-tiful girl, she’s athletic -- people in that positioncan tend to stick with their group of people. Butshe wasn’t like that,” Hicks said. “She could have aconversation with anybody from any background,and she wouldn’t do it in a way that was conde-scending. She did it because she cared about peo-ple and she wanted to know everybody.”

Even outside of CCHS, Carson was able to reach

out to people she had never met. “I remember onetime at a neighborhood Christmas party, there wasa group of 40-year-old women talking -- they werefrom the neighborhood and all knew each other.There was another woman who had just moved inand didn’t really know anybody, and she was kindof wandering around,” McLeod said. “The group ofmature women just sat in their circle talking andnot really making and effort to include her. AndEve, the youngest one there, took the initiative togo talk to her and introduce her to everyone.”

The initiative Carson took in order to meet peo-ple did not go unnoticed, and served as inspirationfor Mills to befriend a wider range of people in highschool.

“She was definitely a role model in that I couldlook at her and see that she was friends with allkinds of people, so I didn’t feel weird being friendswith all different people,” Mills said. “I knew that

“I think that one of the most important lessonsI learned from being in Chillanes … was that pover-ty is not a pitiable thing,” Carson said in the video.“In Chillanes, I saw a respect for poverty andrespect for a non-material way of life. It’s just greatto learn that you can take it, and I learned that overthe summer. I can take it.”

For Jones, “The Gifts of Poverty” encapsulatesCarson’s attitude about people and her perspectiveon the world.

“When I saw that two years ago, I just sat at mydesk and cried,” Jones said. “Just how very percep-tive she was -- I was just so very proud of her …When she walked across the stage that night atgraduation, I’m not sure if I could have predictedthat, but once I saw that, it was like, ‘Yes, of course.That’s Eve.’”

While CCHS graduates, students and staff con-tinue to grieve Carson’s death, Easom feels her spir-it can be preserved and held as a model of goodness-- one from which everyone can learn.

“We, as staff members, would like to think wetaught Eve a lot. The fact is Eve probably taught usa lot more than we taught her -- I’m sure she did,”Easom said. “Once the staff can get past the devas-tation, we’ll say, ‘We’re going to raise some morelike that.’ That’s a challenge for us.”

For Harris, preserving Eve’s spirit means findingthe good in everyone, regardless of race, social classor level of intelligence.

“I think I’m going to try to look at all my kids,every last kid, as an individual and try to see whatit is their mothers love about them,” Harris said.“Sometimes you have to look a little harder, but Ibelieve, and Eve believed, that it’s there in everyperson.”

As someone who looked to Carson as a rolemodel throughout her high school career, Millsfeels that each person who knew Carson has aresponsibility to ensure that her characteristicscontinue to positively affect the world.

“Eve didn’t have the selfishness that so many ofus have, so if people lived their lives like she did,there should be a big difference. There should bepeople reaching out to people that they wouldn’tnormally and trying to make other people happy,”Mills said. “People from Clarke Central graduateand go all over, so Eve’s spirit should stem all overthe world.”

if she could be this bright light toeverybody and surround herselfwith anybody and everybody, Iwanted that, too. It didn’t matterwho you were or what race youwere -- you could be friends withanybody.”

The diversity Carson valued inher friends also played a major rolein where she decided to attend col-lege. Although she received offersfrom many prestigious schools,ultimately, Carson chose to accepta Morehead-Cain scholarship fromthe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I think she wanted to be in a place where shecould know all kinds of people, be in contact andexperience all kinds of people. And I think thatspeaks to her wanting to understand the world,”Sims said. “She could have gone to any of the hoity-toity private schools, but she wanted to be in apublic university where she could experience alltypes of people.”

Like many of Carson’s teachers, Easom dis-cussed Carson’s options for post-secondary educa-tion with her, weighing the advantages and disad-vantages of each possibility.

“She was wondering, ‘Should I choose thisbecause it’s prestigious?’ She was going throughhow to make this decision on what values,” Easomsaid. “But in the end … the diversity was importantto her, and she just said, ‘I want to go to a publicinstitution.’ When it came down to it, that’s whatit was. And boy, did she make an impact.”

At UNC, Carson was involved as a NorthCarolina Fellow in a leadership development pro-gram for undergraduates, Phi Beta Kappa honor

society, the AcademicAdvising Program, theC h a n c e l l o r ’ sCommittee forUniversity TeachingAwards and theCommittee onScholarships, Awards

and Student Aid. Continuing her involvement withstudent government, Carson was also elected UNCstudent body president in 2007.

“I’ve never seen someone work so hard to achieveall of their goals,” Gresham, now a freshman atUNC, said. “When I would talk to Eve, she wouldbe checking her e-mail on her phone every ten min-utes because she was getting that many messages.”

At UNC, Carson had a second opportunity tostudy abroad. Throughout her career at UNC, shestudied in Havana, Cuba and volunteered inChillanes, Ecuador as a Morehead-Cain scholar.

In Chillanes, Carson gained medical experienceas she worked with doctors in Seguro SocialCampesino and Hospital Amigo.

After returning from Ecuador, Carson used pho-tos and sound clips she took to create a video enti-tled “The Gifts of Poverty” for the Morehead-CainFoundation website.

“The fact is Eve probably taught us a lotmore than we taught her -- I’m sure she did.”

-- Dr. Maxine Easom,Clarke Central High School principal

Photo courtesy of www.facebook.com,