Three years ago, Queen Harrison was a senior sitting in the Hermitage High School gymnasium listening to motivational speeches.

Yesterday, she was the one charged with encouraging other students to achieve great things.

Harrison, a 2006 graduate of Hermitage and current student at Virginia Tech, recently returned from the Olympic Games in Beijing, where she competed in the 400-meter hurdles.

"I feel like I'm back home," she told Hermitage students at their annual Expectations of Excellence assembly.

"A lot of times it seemed like they kept saying the same thing: Get good grades, or even to elaborate more: Keep the good grades you have. But as redundant as that might seem, it really is true."

Harrison was an all-American athlete in high school, as well as homecoming and prom queen. She earned a full scholarship to Tech.

She credits school, family and community for her success.

"We control our fate and our destiny. If we want something to happen and we work hard at it, it definitely will."

Students should not be intimidated, she said.

"The average elite Olympian athlete for the 400 hurdles is 27 years old or older, runs professionally and has been running either AAU or club track since the age of 12 or younger.

"I'm 20, a broke-as-a-joke college student, who has a thing for basketball but just happened to stumble across track in middle school.

"If I would have let those prerequisites deaden my vision or stand in my way, I probably wouldn't even have been here talking to you guys. I wouldn't have been an Olympian.

"But it all started with believing in myself and a willingness to always put forth that extra effort every time."

Hermitage principal Omega Wilson said students could identify with Harrison. "If she can do it, we all can, too."

Oct. 3 was proclaimed Queen Harrison Day at Hermitage. She received a key to the school and a portrait of her was unveiled. It will hang in the school's main commons area.
Contact Lisa Crutchfield at (804) 649-6362 or lcrutchfield@timesdispatch.com.