During McKinney High School's graduation ceremony on Friday, there was a touching tribute to a former educator from a student blazing a path of her own.
Hannah Tadesse, valedictorian for McKinney High School, went to McGowen Elementary, named after Jesse McGowen, who was hired by the McKinney ISD in 1963, the year the district voted to desegregate.
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WATCH HERE“Every time I speak of this, it brings tears to my eyes," McGowen told NBC 5. "Because they were looking for a Black counselor, and it was the students -- the Black students, the white students, the Hispanic students -- who spoke up and said, ‘Why are you looking? We already have a counselor here. We have Mr. McGowen.'”
Twenty-five years after retiring, the students still have him.
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SIGN UP Friday, McGowen didn't just attend McKinney High School's graduation; he presented Tadesse, the student who started McKinney ISD in his namesake school, her diploma on stage.
“For him, as the person I looked up to throughout my entire elementary school career, and to see him again and hand me my diploma now, it means so much,” said Tadesse.
It was moments after Tadesse said during her valedictorian speech that her grandmother had traveled more than 7,000 miles to attend the ceremony, “to see the first African American valedictorian to graduate from McKinney High School.”
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The statement was met with a loud round of applause.
“It brings joy to my heart,” said McGowen.
Tadesse plans to attend Cornell University in the fall to pursue her dream of becoming a pediatrician.
