Salutatorian's Belief in Humanity Garners Recognition from Princeton Prize in Race Relations

Left to Right: Co-winner Morgan Foreman (Woodward Academy), Justice Leah Ward Sears, Co-winner Amy Dam (Woodward Academy), certificate winner Darrah Johnson (Asheville High School), certificate winner Paige Curtis (North Atlanta High School)

Paige Curtis, salutatorian of the class of 2012 at  North Atlanta High School, was recently recognized with a certificate for her use of the written word to spread the message that a belief in the oneness of humanity trumps the need for racial identifiers, by the Atlanta committee of the Princeton Prize in Race Relations and the Princeton Club of Georgia.

Curtis started a one woman Ban Racial Labels (BRL) campaign with a post-it note on her shirt.  From that point, she expanded her audience and wrote an essay for NPR’s This I Believe and continues to write on the theme of racial harmony for Vox, an Atlanta magazine written for and by teens.

Held at the law offices of Troutman Sanders, the distinguished guest of the evening was former Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, Leah Ward Sears.  Winners of this years $1,000 prize were Amy Dam and Morgan Foreman, juniors at Woodward Academy in College Park, Georgia, for their efforts to foster positive race relations in their school and local community.

The Princeton Prize in Race Relations is an awards program that recognizes high school students for outstanding work in their schools or communities that advances the cause of race relations and is sponsored by the university’s Alumni Association.

Ever the humanitarian as well as the academian, it was announced during NAHS commencement ceremonies that Curtis received over one million dollars in scholarships and grants from top tier colleges and universities incuding Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins , and the University of Pennsylvania.  Curtis has chosen to attend Yale University where she will begin in the fall with over $200,000 in awards.

In addition to recognition from the Princeton Prize, Paige Curtis received over one million dollars in scholarship and grant offers as a senior at North Atlanta High School.

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