From Campus to Classroom: Stories That Shape Education
Students with perfect attendance were finalists for a car prize, showcasing perseverance.
NEW ORLEANS — On days when the rain is pouring down, it can be very tempting to stay in bed and skip school, because getting up is often half the battle. However, for some New Orleans students, staying in bed was never an option.
They didn’t hit snooze. They didn’t make excuses. They got up every single day. Naiya Washington, a New Orleans high school graduate, says, “It’s a very big accomplishment for me to have missed no school at all.”
No matter what was going on at home or how little they slept, they chose to be there. Naiya’s mother Dianisha Washington said, “It wasn’t always easy to wake up for school every day, I know some days she was tired and some days she was frustrated, we have dealt with a couple heart breaks in recent years, and she lost a couple loved ones and she still pushed, no matter what.”
Sixty students across NOLA Public Schools were finalists in the Stay in School Program. These high school graduates with perfect attendance got the chance to win a brand-new 2025 Toyota Corolla LE.
Naiya is one of the few, awarded for showing up every single day for 14 years straight, she said, “It’s really just the perseverance from my mum.”
But behind every student with perfect attendance is a parent who made sure they got there, like Ms. Washington, who says, “You are great, greatness is in you, just keep going, you got it. You just have to install in them, that they what you know they have, you just have to pull it out.”
Premier Automotive Group partnered with the school system to give away the new car. Troy Duhon, with the company, said, “In life, they need to know that perseverance will get them through.”
And the winner was Jonathan Vazquez, he said, “I’m going into college for game programming and design, I’m going to get my associates at AIE in Lafayette.”
He says behind his perfect attendance record was someone who never let him fall behind, his mother. He said, “Honestly, my main motivator was my mom the whole time. Sometimes I really didn’t want to get to school, but my mom reminded me that, to get somewhere, I really had to be committed to something.”
These kids learned perseverance not from a book, but from watching those who believed in them most. Behind every perfect record is love, sacrifice, and the quiet strength it takes to keep going.
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