Senior Janiyah Lewis is the youngest of four, a speech and debate fanatic, a tennis player, a volunteer for local organizations and a soon-to-be academic honor graduate of BHS.

Lewis plans on attending Wake Forest University to study Engineering, Humanitarianism and eventually Nursing. Being a humanitarian means being someone who works for the people and for the environment. Lewis explained that being a humanitarian to her means for someone to “put others before themselves.” She even said that she might join a speech and debate club or a tennis club as well.

Playing tennis since the age of eight, Lewis enjoys the sport but enjoys Speech and Debate even more. Joining as a sophomore, Lewis is passionate about poetry. Lewis finds poems that reflect her life as a “Black girl living in a white environment.” She finds the poems online then combines the pieces together to make her own.

With a knack for helping others even as a child, young Lewis hated seeing others suffer at the hands of poverty. Lewis said that as a “little baby, [seeing] homeless people on the street… I wanted to make blankets for them.” And once Lewis discovered that there was a chance that she could do it as a career she realized “I really liked doing that. So, I’m gonna keep doing that.”

Lewis has been volunteering since the beginning of this school year. When asked about an estimate for how many hours she had volunteered so far, Lewis stated that “somewhere around 40” was how much time she has spent putting others before herself. On top of the 40 hours Lewis has spent volunteering, she has also taken a variety of AP classes including her current class, AP Literature. Lewis shared that “since I stay up late anyways, I just kind of do everything at night because that’s when I’m most productive.” Later she shared that she gets around two hours of sleep each night due to all the activities that she participates in. In the past, Lewis has taken other AP classes such as AP Psychology, AP Lang and AP Computer Science.

A few different organizations such as Blues in the Burg, Bow Bash, the Avon Rehabilitation center and the local library all benefit from volunteers like Lewis. Some of the responsibilities that Lewis is charged with while volunteering is, “either cleanup or activities.”

Lewis gets one day each week to rest. “Lazy Sunday; I literally don’t leave my bed.”