NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It’s a mother’s heartbreak that’s now turned into hope. Six years after her son Cameron Selmon was shot and killed on the Tennessee State University campus in Nashville, his mom Stacie Payne has just selected the latest winners of the Cameron Selmon Scholarship, which she created.
Veronica Holmes from Memphis is one of the recipients and she'll be attending Fisk University in the fall.
She says she will major in English but wants to use her degree to help educate others on gun violence in an attempt to reduce it.
Stacie says she selected Veronica as one of the recipients after reading her essay about what happened one day in her high school.
"A student brought a gun to school, and I was one of the ones who -- some would call it tattle tale -- I told the security guard about the weapon," Holmes said. "I did receive backlash and bullying, but it didn't bother me, because I saved someone's life: someone could have been killed that day."
Veronica says she wants to follow in the footsteps of Congressman John Lewis, W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells -- who all attended Fisk University.
