CALHOUN COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) - Nia-Sarai Perry never had to be told that education mattered. She grew up watching it every single day.

A native of Tallahassee, Florida — by way of Leary, Georgia, Perry was raised in a household where higher learning was a way of life. Both of her parents worked at Florida State University. Her grandmother was a teacher. From her earliest years, college wasn’t a distant dream — it was the world she already lived in.

Perry said. “So I was always surrounded by higher education, just growing up at an early age.”

That foundation would prove critical because the road ahead would test her in ways no classroom could prepare her for.

A Diagnosis That Changed Everything

When Perry was 15 years old, her mother was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer.

At the time, it was just the two of them at home. Overnight, Perry went from being a teenager to being a caregiver.

“My mom had never even had a cold growing up,” Perry recalled. “So for her to be diagnosed with such an aggressive form of cancer and naturally me having to step up since I was the only one at home it was definitely a transition. It was not easy at all.”

Perry learned her mother’s treatment schedule. She knew her doctors. She knew her medications. She attended class virtually on the days she couldn’t leave the cancer center. And she did much of it alone during COVID, when limiting her mother’s exposure meant limiting outside help.

“There were just some days where I just felt like I was on autopilot,” she said.

But Perry made a decision early on.

“I went to my room. Of course, I cried cried and cried and cried. Put myself together, went back in her room. I said, ‘Okay girl, let’s do this.’ And that is exactly what we did.”

She made a commitment to herself and to her mother that everything within her control, she would do with purpose and impact.

Valedictorian — The First Time

Even through the hardest days of her mother’s illness, Perry never let her grades slip.

She graduated from high school with a 4.6 Grade Point Average (GPA), graduating as valedictorian.

“I made a commitment, not only to myself, but to my mom when she got diagnosed, that from this point on, all the things that I have control over I do it just to create a lasting impact on the community around me,” she said.

Her mother, she noted, never stopped showing up either continuing to go to work at Florida State, showing up for her students and her staff, even through treatment.

“Even then, we were still just kind of in this exchanging of just strength like back and forth, tossing it back and forth,” Perry said. “As we just fought we fought through her cancer.”

Choosing Spelman

With a 4.6 GPA and a valedictorian title, Perry had options. Spelman College wasn’t even her first choice at first.

She knew about the Atlanta-based Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) through a cousin who had attended. But she hadn’t seriously considered it until she took a campus tour.

“I fell in love with the campus. I fell in love with the community,” she said.

For Perry, who describes herself as deeply pro-Black and pro-Black women an institution built entirely around Black women felt like more than a fit. It felt like home.

“I just felt so welcomed,” she said. “I still talk to people that I met at the admitted students event, they call it Spellbound. And that just goes to show just that tight sisterhood that you get from the very beginning as soon as you set foot on campus.”

Perry chose philosophy as her major, a reflection of her lifelong hunger for knowledge.

“I just have a thirst for knowledge. I have always liked to know things,” she said. “Anyone who knows me personally knows I just love to know stuff. I love to read.”

At Spelman, that curiosity thrived. Classes were discussion-based. Students were pushed to speak, to contribute, to be vulnerable. And for the first time, Perry was in a classroom where everyone looked like her.

“You automatically come in with a level of comfort,” she said. “There were times where we could be very vulnerable with each other. I was able to become more comfortable speaking about what me and my mom went through because I just felt like the environment and the space that I was in, my voice would be heard. My story would be affirmed.”

She interned at Disney. She worked for the King Center. She built a network of women she now calls sisters, women who have met her family and become part of it.

“I came into Spelman thinking that I had just had it together and had this on a straight and narrow,” she said. “And my path has just gone so many different directions ways that I never thought, opportunities I thought I’d never get.”

Two-Time Valedictorian

When the email came confirming she had been named one of Spelman’s six valedictorians for the Class of 2026, Perry said she wasn’t entirely surprised.

“Not only feeling proud of myself, like, whoa, Nia, you did it, but also just giving credit back to the people who have just kept me up, kept me prayed up, kept me encouraged along the way,” she said. “I am nothing without my village.”

She is also graduating debt-free.

“Those kids who are getting picked on or teased about being a nerd...I am graduating Spelman College debt-free,” she said. “That hard work, it will pay off.”

What’s Next

Upon graduation, Perry will join DLA Piper one of the world’s largest corporate law firms working in their private equity group.

Her long-term goal is to become a corporate attorney. She discovered early on that the law didn’t have to mean a courtroom.

“When I learned that there were all these different types of attorneys who have their law degree, who practice law without ever sitting up in the courtroom I said, that’s exactly what I want to do,” she said.

She describes herself as a sponge, ready to absorb everything her new environment has to offer.

“I believe in delayed gratification,” Perry said. “So I will work and work and work early on so I can reap the benefits of that later on.”

As she prepares to walk across the Spelman stage, Perry says she leaves with no regrets, and a deep sense of gratitude.

“I wouldn’t change a thing,” she said. “I’m leaving with a net gain, not a net loss, most definitely.”

She wants her story to be a message, especially for young people who feel like the odds are stacked against them.

“Nothing is more powerful to have than your own mind and to know things and to be able to critically think and solve problems,” she said. “What you know is always going to stay with you.”

And for the girl who once spent her free time reading Wikipedia articles while others played outside, the proof is in the diploma.

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