Calia Brooks, 17, is Thornton Township High School’s valedictorian.

“Be better than I was.”

That’s what Angela Hikes-Echols of Harvey always told her four children as they grew up. They all heeded her request with her youngest going above and beyond the call.

Calia Brooks, 17, is Thornton Township High School’s valedictorian and has a 5.2 GPA on a weighted scale, due to the college credit courses she’s taken while at the high school and a 3.97 GPA on a regular 4.0 scale.

Her mother knew at an early age that her daughter was special because she would challenge the teacher during class to prove what they were teaching. The classes that she took often did not challenge her so her mother lobbied the school to put her in more advanced classes.

“I was very involved when she was at school,” she said. “I was at every parent-teacher conference, board meeting and visited their classes.”

She wanted to make sure her children were serious about school and Calia was no exception.

“I never went to college,” she said. “I have a high school diploma, but I had to work hard to give them a better life.”

Brooks said her good grades in school didn’t come easy, but it took a lot of hard work and her mother provided the motivation.

“They (her children) knew that their mother wasn’t screwed too tight when it came to not doing school work and getting into trouble,” Hikes-Echols said.

As the school year comes close to ending Brooks is looking forward to graduating and moving on with her life. She describes her new life after high school as a long road trip, which in reality she wouldn’t mind doing.

“I just want to get out and just drive,” she said.

It wasn’t all books when she was in high school. She also enjoys music. She plays the flute along with the saxophone in the school’s various bands.

She hopes to take her love of music and psychology and weave it into a way to help people suffering from mental illness. She believes that music can be used as a form of therapy and wants to put it into practice.

“I want to major in both clinical psychology and music education,” she said. “I would like to work in a mental hospital and hopefully use music as a tool in the process of psychotherapy.”

She had high hopes of going to college at schools like: Northwestern University, Vanderbilt University and University of Pennsylvania, but did not get selected to attend. But that doesn’t mean she’s not being pursued by hundreds of colleges and universities waiting to get her a full-ride.

Brooks is evaluating the offers she’s received while her mother would like her to attend University of Illinois Champagne-Urbana. Hikes-Echols would rather drive to see her daughter than fly.

“I don’t like her going so far because she’s my baby,” she said.

Brooks said she is ready to go to the next level and would like to relay to her fellow students that after graduation the future holds tremendous opportunities.

“I’m ready to move on to the next step to college and venture out from there,” she said.

Read the current issue of the Cook County Chronicle

Free subscription to the digital edition of the Cook County Chronicle

— Thornton valedictorian takes her mother’s words to heart —