On Monday March 2, a group of students accompanied Assistant Principal Tracey Means on an after school field trip to the downtown Marriott hotel to see speaker and actress Viola Davis. The majority of these students were debate or theatre students invited by English and Drama teacher Stacy Embry. One of the students who went was Senior Taylor Williams, who was excited to see Davis and be inspired through what she has to say.

“I’m excited to go see Viola Davis because she is a great actress and her show ‘How to get Away with Murder’ is really good. It is a very interesting show and I am excited to hear her talk. She inspires young black girls to pursue their dreams and do better,” Williams said.

Davis came to Indianapolis upon the request of Steward Speakers to speak on their theme: My Brother’s Keeper. My Brother’s Keeper is an initiative created by president Barrack Obama to pinpoint the challenges young black men face and to help them overcome those challenges with hard work. However, in Davis’s speech she remarks that she cannot totally connect with this audience because she is in fact a woman, but she can connect with hard work and coming from unfortunate circumstances.

Freshman Donniele Green thinks that whether Davis thinks it or not, she is a role model to many.

“She seems like such a warm person with the way she carries herself and I think she displays herself as a good role model whether she knows it or not”, Green said. “I admire her. She is my one role model since her movie ‘The Help’, and I have fallen in love with all of her work.”

Another student who believed Davis to be an inspiration is senior Calvin Hart. Hart understands that coming from a minority and female background may be difficult.

“Throughout history its been a struggle altogether for colored people in general, but it’s been a huge struggle for colored women because they are seen as less than even more than colored people in general. So to see how far she has went in her career and how much success she has had. It just shows that everyone has the potential to do whatever they want to do and nothing should hold you back,” Hart said.

Senior Malaysia Chappel was happy to see Davis because she believes Davis to be a good example of what young black women can achieve and she thinks it is important for people to know that.

“She is a powerful actress, like her roles are just always strong. She plays a strong black woman in all her movies and that’s very important. We don’t have a lot of black actresses doing stuff the way she is doing it because her character will speak to you,” Chappel said.

Davis has played in many roles from movies like “The Help”, “Doubt”, “Beautiful Creatures”, and famous for her hit TV how “How to get Away with Murder”. Hart was inspired by her works to pursue a career in acting through the first show that introduced him to her, “The Help”.

“Seeing her work, it really inspired me to be an actor. She has done an amazing job on the productions that she has done, so to be able to have the opportunity to talk with her, even though it is not one-on-one, I had to take that opportunity,” Hart said.

In Davis’s speech she talked to the audience about her upbringing and how it affected her and how she rose to stardom not without struggle. She described a memory of her childhood where she and her sisters were entering a talent show and how they would practice in not the best conditions.

“We would go into the closet that was infested with rats and practice our lines, and sure I didn’t like rats, but I did it, and we won,” Davis said.

After giving her speech Davis answered questions from the audience including one from freshman Eryn Jenkins, who was excited to hear what Davis had to say.

“One of my questions going in was to ask what advice would she have to future actors and actresses. And I actually got to go up and ask her personally my question and her advice would be, ‘to learn your craft and love it,'” Jenkins said.

Jenkins felt inspired by Davis’ comments and stories.

“I connected with the fact that she came from a low place and she actually made it to where she always dreamed to make it. So in that respect she inspired me even more to follow my dreams,” Jenkins said.

Overall Green thought that Davis inspired many and by telling her history and giving advice Green loved Davis as an actress even more.

“It was a complete inspiration. I admire her even more after knowing her complete story with her telling it. It was just mind blowing,” Green said.

Davis gave many examples about her life and her career, informing the audience of what it was like to be in her shoes as a colored actress.

“She is a great speaker and a phenomenal woman. I learned a lot about her life that I didn’t know at all,” Williams said, “To be honest I didn’t know that much about her roles, major movies, and the TV show but she still gave me an insight that showed me that she is not that different than the people in my community and she is very humble about it all, her upbringing and where she came from,” Williams said.