MACON, Ga. — Ending one chapter and turning the page on another can be exciting, but that excitement can also bring stress. Graduation season presents many emotions, and that's where the Pace Center for Girls comes in. It provides counseling to help young ladies in Bibb and Peach counties through that transition.
Sakiyah Spencer will be the first person in her family to graduate high school.
She goes to Southwest High School.
"I want to be really successful in life. I know I got to go to college, and I got to do right in school," Spencer said.
Spencer is in the top 10 of her high school academically. She started Pace back in December.
"In high school, you face a lot of problems. Pace, for me, just was like a place for me to express my feelings and talk more," Spencer said.
Kourtney Mikell is a reach counselor. she says Pace is different from a school counselor because their girls have access to them whenever they need help. That means the girls can text or call them past the normal 9-5 school hours.
"If they ever need to talk at 7:00 at night and we're available, we can get on the phone with them or text them during situations in need," Mikell said.
Sakiyah Spencer plans to attend Georgia Southern this fall. She will be the first in her family to go to a four-year college.
"At first, I didn't like talking, I didn't like expressing my feelings. Pace helped me cope with my feelings and express them and recognize when I got something wrong," Spencer said.
During high school, she worked more than 30 hours a week and was crowned prom princess.
"Young people don't really get attention that much in our communities unless it's something bad," Spencer said.
Spencer wants to work to change that narrative.
"I want to major in criminal justice and criminology. I want to start off working in family law. In the future, I would like to have my own law firm," she said.
She wants to help those who may not have the best family situations and provide the same kind of support she gets from Pace.
"Truly just needing a safe space to talk about things that mom or dad or grandma doesn't really have any entail to," Mikell said.
Mikell says they have four counselors but hope to add two more to reach more schools.