When Jillianne Freeman opened an email on her phone one day during classes at Poplar Bluff High School, the 2023 senior expected a scholarship refusal from the first 15 colleges and universities to which she had applied.
She didn’t expect to learn she had been awarded a $400,000 full-ride scholarship to one of her top pick schools, Washington University of St. Louis.
“I was so confused when I saw the confetti,” recalled Freeman, who crossed the stage Thursday with the PBHS Class of 2023 during ceremonies at the Black River Coliseum.
For an 18-year-old who has been out of her parents’ care since first grade, worked 20-30 hours a week during the school year — and up to 50 hours a week during the summer — while juggling Color Guard, advanced classes and a host of other school responsibilities, it meant another step toward securing her future as a biomedical researcher.
It also meant, Freeman shared, a chance to catch her breath in the second half of her senior year and take a step back to focus on her mental health.
She made the difficult choice to step out of the battle for class rank and take on a schedule that would allow her to finish her senior year with part-time classes and part-time work at Panda Express, where she is a shift leader.
“I knew I had Wash U in my back pocket and could step out. It really helped,” said Freeman, who said she is the first generation of her family to even apply to college.
She applied for her job at Panda Express the day she turned 16 with the goal of saving up to buy a car, which she accomplished six months later.
It is the same focus she brought to her studies — she would work 12-hour shifts on weekends, bringing her homework for breaks — and to efforts like band, which meant practicing every day after school until 6 p.m. and Saturday competitions.
As a member of Color Guard, she also fought her way back from two concussions, including one that was serious. Freeman was struck in the temple by a flag pole tossed too early and was out of school for two months in the first half of her senior year with headaches, nausea, vertigo and other symptoms caused by her concussion. Doctors said the symptoms could linger for up to a year.
Freeman overcame those missed weeks of school at the beginning of the year, and again in the second half of the school year, she said, as she dealt with mental health issues, to celebrate Thursday with her classmates, grandmother, adopted siblings and PBHS faculty.
Having already embraced those challenges, Freeman is ready for the next chapter with a desire to be part of the creation of medicine.
Class President Quinlan Rutledge also urged graduates Thursday to embrace the challenges of their future, while remembering the valuable lessons learned in the past 12 years.
“Throughout our years of education, we have learned countless lessons in various subjects, but the most valuable lesson of all is the significance of being kind to one another,” said Rutledge. “When we are kind, we extend compassion, empathy and understanding to others.
“We embrace the diversity of our society, recognizing each person we encounter has their own story, struggles and dreams.
“Kindness allows us to see beyond the surface and discover the humanity that unites us all.”
Rutledge shared the story of a classmate she has known since preschool, Karson Busse, who has Down Syndrome. Busse was recognized by the Class of 2023 as the Student of the Year.
“He is the kindest soul you’ll ever meet,” Rutledge said. “His day is always a day full of smiles, love and laughter. He doesn’t care what car you drive or what sport you play. He cares if you smile. He sees the best in you. And I would just like to say it has been a privilege and an honor to know and be friends with Karson.”
Her advice, she said, was to be more like Karson.
“See the good in the person standing next to you, strike up a conversation with someone who is sitting alone or wave to a stranger in the street,” she said, adding, “I hope we can all learn to see the world through Karson’s eyes.”
Rutledge also thanked all of the family, friends, teachers and administrators who helped the Class of 2023 reach this point.
For Freeman, the two women who helped change the trajectory of her life are her grandmother, Theresa Freeman, and teacher Hope Conover.
Freeman’s father passed away when she was young. Theresa Freeman is her late father’s stepmother.
Freeman came into her grandmother’s care after she and her older sister were removed from her mother’s care. The woman had left the two girls alone on the side of the road one day when Freeman was 7. The small family had been homeless up to that point, Freeman said, sleeping on friends’ couches. The girls made their way to an aunt’s house, and eventually, when her mother was sent to prison, the care of her grandmother.
“I was in first grade. I’ve been with her ever since,” said Freeman, who lives with three adoptive siblings, who are her biological cousins, children of her aunt.
While she knows other children in her situation who — without support like she’s had from her grandmother — have been able to “get out,” Freeman explained, she’s also seen children she grew up with who didn’t.
“My grandmother’s support, housing and love gave me the strength to do all of that,” she said.
Conover has been a mother away from home, she continued.
“She has the guidance of a mother but you can talk to her like a best friend,” Freeman said. “She reached out to support and connect to me emotionally. I didn’t expect anybody to do that for me.”
Thursday’s ceremonies marked the final graduation Dr. Scott Dill will oversee for the district, as he retires at the end of this month.
Dill shared their lives would be a never ending sequence of beginnings and endings.
“Tonight, this chapter of your life ends and another begins,” he said. “You are taking your first steps into a much larger world and no matter where you go in this world, you are now part of a much larger family.”
Dill asked all graduates in the audience to stand.
“You are not losing classmates, you are gaining family,” Dill said.
The class also recognized a classmate who did make it graduate with them, James Curtis Lee Dunn-Jones, who died in November 2011.
The class included 359 graduates, who earned more than $4 million in scholarships.