Ashleigh Fields
A mind of determination
By: Anna Blount
Ashleigh Fields, “Ash got cash” or “Ash,” is a 17-year-old rising senior from Charlotte, North Carolina.
She attends East Mecklenburg High School where she is politically, athletically, and journalistically involved—aspects that support her determination to reach her goals.
Her professional goal is to become a political analyst for CNN.
Ashleigh works with her fellow “Eagles” in student government where she takes her love of journalism into the political mindset. She promotes her school’s activities through her role as publicity chair.
Working hard in the classroom but on the track, too, Ashleigh expressed her love for track: “I started running track and kept growing each year that I just stuck with it.”
Motivated by her role models, her parents, and by Olympic athlete Tianna Bartoletta, Ashleigh holds these people at a higher standard. Bartoletta holds the record for long jump and has a personal blog. Ashleigh expressed her view on Bartoletta by saying, “She’ like a fire.” She believes Bartoletta is an inspiration to her and to many other young athletes.
Ashleigh’s ultimate dream is to be a part of the 2023 Summer Olympics. She plans to run track at a four-year university and try out for the Olympics after college graduation in 2023. Ashleigh quoted her Olympic dream by saying she wanted to be a two-event athlete. “That is very hard to do”, Ashleigh says. She plans to compete in the long jump as well as the triple jump.
She currently runs for the Charlotte Flight which has the stereotype of being in a “Bad Area”. Ashleigh, if she makes it to the Olympics, hopes to go back to Charlotte and encourage the runners on her old team.
She is not only talented on the track but in the newsroom as well.
A writer for her school newspaper, “The Eagle”. “Relay the truth” is Ashleigh’s goal when writing. She works to tell the truth in her writings no matter how bad it may be. She has a strong passion for her hometown of Charlotte. She wrote an article on the gentrification crisis in Charlotte. When asked about the article, she said her teacher’s view “My teacher didn’t want to call it gentrification, but I was very proud of it”. Ashleigh enjoys writing stories about her town and how her race is treated in the town.
A published author of a spoken word book entitled “Caged: A Collection of Otherwise Worthless Insensitivities”, Ashleigh’s spoken word book was inspired by Sylvia Plath, an Americans poet during the mid to late 1900s.
“She is so descriptive and I feel immersed in her life”, Ashleigh said. This is just one more aspect of her determination; she is selling the kindle version of her book for $2.99 on Amazon.