Andrea Herod has a steady calm and an unshakeable faith in God.
She graduated May 30 from Andrew Jackson High School. Her grit, grades and talent earned enough academic awards to pay for her college education in full.
Since the age of three, she has been dancing and performing. Her academic ambition can be measured by her achievements in the accelerated honors track. By the time she reached high school, she only needed a few courses to graduate.
Shannon Funderburk, director of dance at Andrew Jackson High School, has known Andrea for five years where she spent seven semesters in advanced dance class. She served as Captain of the dance team, earned membership in the National Honor Society for Dance Arts and earned honors credits for outstanding choreography.
“From the first day of class, Andrea impressed me with her positive attitude towards dance, her technical skill and maturity level,” Funderburk said. “Not only is she a very talented and hardworking dancer, but she is an outstanding student as well.”
To Funderburk’s delight, Andrea’s plans include returning to choregraph the dance team.
Challenges
Her efforts and her talent earned the first-generation college student a full ride to Winthrop University, but the ride to get there was not an easy one.
Last week, Andrea spent time reflecting on her journey so far. She wore sandals, leggings and a t-shirt bearing the message “Protect Your Energy” – a slogan that sums up this driven young woman. Nothing seems to break her stride or her focus.
Before reaching high school, Andrea’s beloved grandmother died. In the eighth grade, on Feb. 28, 2020, she was in a car wreck that almost took her life. She was released from the hospital a month later to a world shutdown by the pandemic. Things slowly returned to normal and she danced again at the same award-winning level.
She is sure she can face whatever comes next.
“I’ve accomplished so many things that I didn’t think I would be able to do,” she said. “Like being able to go to college and not worry about paying loans back or going into debt. That took a big weight off my shoulders.”
And then with a bright smile she said, “Plus, I’m getting to do what I love.”
After college she hopes to teach dance with the long-term goal of opening her own studio. She hopes to model her studio after the two that shaped her, Dance Works Unlimited in Lancaster and New Attitude Performing Arts in Rock Hill.
Grandmother’s faith and mother’s love
The wreck nearly ended her ability to dance and almost took her life. She was airlifted to the hospital where she spent a week in intensive care with a concussion and a broken arm.
On the flight to the hospital, she could hear the propeller blades as she slipped in and out of consciousness. But she clung to her faith.
“I knew God always had me,” she said.
Her grandmother Irene Patterson, a minister, instilled in her that she could do anything if her faith was strong.
“She told me that God has a plan for me and I hold that in my heart,” she said. “And as long as I believe, God will see me through.”
Andrea was raised by a single mother, Cynthia Simpson, who works as a teacher’s assistant at Clinton Elementary. Andrea taught dance in Clinton’s extended day program and choreographed the showcase dance event at the end of the school year.
Economic hardship was no match for Andrea’s bright outlook.
“We have struggled with me being a single parent, but she didn’t complain about what she didn’t have,” Simpson said. “She held her head high and kept going in life.”
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