For Syriah Williams, a set of braces gave her much more than a great smile. She also found a career direction.
“Growing up I had a really bad smile,” Williams said. “It was really crooked.”
Her orthodontist fixed all that. It took four years with braces, but the process was well worth it. All she does is smile now.
“I absolutely loved my orthodontist,” Williams said. “He was always so talkative and outgoing. Kind of reminded me a little bit of myself. I was like, ‘I want to be like you when I grow up.’ I like the confidence that he instilled in me. Once the braces were off, I'm always smiling.”
Now 18, with a future as bright as her smile, Williams has plenty of reasons to be happy. Not only is she graduating top of her class from Eustis High School with a 5.33 GPA, she’s also earning her Associate of Arts degree from Lake-Sumter State College with a 4.0 GPA. Accepted to 20 different schools, with several scholarship offers to choose from, she decided Florida State University is where she wants to be. This August she’s heading off to Tallahassee to pursue a career as, you guessed it, an orthodontist.
“So, I want to be an orthodontist, and it takes like an extra 11 years of school after high school,” she explains of her accelerated educational track. “I tried to get ahead by dual-enrolling. My sophomore year, I started and I took a few classes, and then my senior year I took the early admissions program, so that I could take as many classes as I want.”
Without any high school classes left to take this year, Williams still found a way to stay connected to her classmates. They may not see her in class anymore, but she has stayed involved through her membership in student organizations.
Williams is the executive vice president of Student Government Association, secretary of National Honor Society and a member of the Black Student Union and Key Club. She was also a debutante for the Silhouettes of Criterion Organization, a Eustis-based extension of the Criterion Civic Club, which fosters academic excellence, social grace and a commitment to community service.
“So, I’m always there,” she said. “I always have a meeting, especially, being a part of student government. There’s always something going on, like movie night or volleyball powder puff. So, I’m still a part of the school, I’m just not there during the day.”
Williams said she has been focused on getting good grades since she first started preschool. Early on she was pushed to do well by her mom, Tunica Mitchell, whom she calls her best friend.
“She is a ball of sunshine,” she says of her mom. “Our personalities are very similar. I feel like at first she did push me, but I’ve always wanted to be at the top of the class. Honestly, it’s because I feel if I don’t get the proper education that I won’t really succeed in life. I always want to go further and further in life.”
As excited as she is to go to college, it will be tough leaving her mom and family in Umatilla, the town they’ve called home for multiple generations. Still, she’s looking forward to getting the education she needs to be an orthodontist. She sees people who don’t want to smile or cover their mouths to hide crooked teeth. She wants to be the person to help give them the confidence a healthy smile can bring.
When she gets to Tallahassee, Williams will already be a junior at FSU. As focused as she is on her academics, she wants to enjoy all that college has to offer while she’s there.
“I want to make new friends,” she said. “I want to meet new people and have the whole college experience.”
