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NATCHEZ — The senior at Ferriday High School to receive the 2021-2022 Syndey A. Murray Jr. Citizenship award is planning to chase big dreams in a big city after graduation.

Ferriday High School senior T’Kyah Gill said she was surprised to learn that she received the 2021-2022 Syndey A. Murray Jr. Citizenship Award, presented to one senior at the school.

“I honestly didn’t know what it was for at first, and sometimes I still don’t,” she said.

Gill guessed her teachers chose her because she is respectful and a good listener in the classroom. She describes herself as a “goofy” person but a good student.

Gill is the daughter of Charles Gill, a teacher at Ferriday High School, and Crystal Gill.

She enjoys escaping the everyday by reading and writing outside of her schoolwork, Gill said.

“I like to write. Sometimes about life and sometimes I write poetry and just experiences I have been through,” she said. “Sometimes I like to create my own fairy tale or write from another’s point of view.”

When Gill finishes school for the day, she goes to work in the office at the vocational-technical school. Gill said she also enjoys photography and capturing real moments in everyday life.

Her dream after graduation is to go to Las Vegas and start a life there while working her way through nursing school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“I want to go to college and while I’m doing that start my own business in photography and writing,” she said. “I love doing everything, but the main thing I want to do is nursing. I want to follow in my mom’s footsteps. She is also working in the medical field and so do some of my aunts.”