By Angelia Fleming and eighth-grade AIG students at North Rowan Middle School

North Rowan Middle School

CHINA GROVE — What happens when 24 students are challenged by Superintendent Lynn Moody to market Rowan County?

We begin a journey filled with rich discoveries of the unique qualities in our communities — starting with South Rowan.

Our South Rowan experience began with Corriher-Lipe Middle School. Student ambassadors led us through their school and showed us all kinds of cool things. They had a collaborative area, and it was a whole section of the second floor. There were like 20 huge classrooms, and they had couches and comfortable chairs. With the collaborative area, there is a time called freedom break.

The art class had all kinds of creative activities, and we liked all the murals all over the school. In robotics class, students learn how to use computers and put in the codes to make certain things work. The teachers and students welcomed us into the class and even let us try out some of the robots.

It’s a great thing to have under your belt because as we progress as humans so do machines, and when we get older we may have to use those every day. That’s why we were so interested in it.

South Rowan High School has a very welcoming presence. As soon as you walk into the building you felt as if you had been there your whole life. The school made you feel like we were more than just middle schoolers.

We felt as if we were A-List celebrities the way the students gathered around us. They didn’t treat us as if we were toddlers because we were younger. All of the high schoolers wanted to take pictures with us.

Members of the Raider Nation Network News Team told us all about their news reporting and videos projects. They even highlighted us in their weekly news report.

Remember the small things that made you so happy in elementary school? Playing with the parachute, eating lunch with your best friends and running around on the playground during recess? We experienced a blast from the past when we visited Landis Elementary School and ate lunch with the little kids.

We felt the excitement coming from the kids when we saw them. We felt happy that we were viewed as role models to them. We also got a surprise from Coach Leslie when we got to play with the parachute; that brought back sweet memories from our childhood and was so fun.

We visited a museum titled The Price of Freedom. It was started by a man with a dream to share the memories and heroic actions of men who have served our country. This dream spread like wildfire through this community, sparking a flame to donate to this cause.

Since the museum opened, it has received more than 5,000 artifacts covering all of the armed services. We were given an interesting and detailed guided tour where many of our veterans’ personal stories were shared. We were encouraged to try on helmets, to ask questions and to explore.

If you go to downtown China Grove, everyone is so nice to each other, and since it’s so small, everybody knows each other. You can go there and the people act like you’re part of their family. Sweet Treats Nevaeh welcomed us in like we were special guests. We got to end our day with laughter and ice cream.

Angelia Fleming is an AIG teacher at North Rowan Middle School. Her eighth-grade class is visiting each area of Rowan County and will supply an article with each visit.