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2008 HU Model Student Charisma Manley is "Worthy of Imitation"


Charisma Manley

After much deliberation the winner of Hampton University's 2008 Model Student competition has been decided. The person who will carry the title this year is, Charisma Manley, a junior biology major and political science minor.

"It was an extremely difficult choice. All of the finalists are truly model students at Hampton University," said Yuri Rodgers Milligan, editor of the Student Connection.

Charisma is a very focused student. In her last semester here at Hampton University, she balances 24 credit hours and is still involved in many campus activities and organizations. The judges were especially impressed with Charisma's dedication to tutoring biology students in a course that she found to be initially difficult and her determination pursue both of her dreams of becoming an attorney and a doctor.

In her essay about how her experience as a model student has prepared her to become a model citizen, Charisma replied, "Worthy of imitation, according to the definition those words are the meaning of the adjective 'model'. So being the model student, being the model citizen means you are worthy to be imitated."


2008 HU Model Student winner Charisma Manley poses with the 2007 winner Rachel Spivey

Charisma has a 3.65 GPA, is involved in the Hampton University community as a member of the Greer Dawson Wilson Student Leadership Program, the NAACP, the Pre-Health Club and Project H.O.P.E. She is also a part of Hampton University's academic elite as a member of the Alpha Kappa Mu National Honors Society, Alpha Mu Gamma National and Golden Key International Honors Societies.

When she is not studying she gives back to the community as a lead site manager in "Project Dream Big!" and an Obama Presidential Campaign volunteer and in her local community, of Fayette, N.C. as a volunteer at the Fayette Community Hospital.

Charisma credits becoming the person she is today to her time spent at HU, "I am now doing what I would not have once done. Many ask and wonder, how? The answer I give is simple; Hampton University has taught me that in this life I can be all that I will myself to be, if I practice balance."

In the fall Charisma will be leaving HU to begin an early medical school selection program at Boston University, where she will start medical school classes and finish out her minor requirements. "Hampton University has given me two very important entities that I will carry with me throughout my life; one is roots the other is wings. I have my foundation here, an education for life. Hampton has given me roots that give me the ability to balance and wings that enable me to do so with excellence!"

-Autumn D.Wilds