Christopher Newport University and Newport News Community Walk visits Warwick
Posted: October 31, 2025
Halloween morning saw all treats and no tricks as Warwick High School's school community warmly welcomed Christopher Newport University President William Kelly's series of community walks on October 31.
This was the fourth time the CNU and Newport News Community Walk has visited Newport News Public Schools. Past walks were to Riverside Elementary School on November 13, 2023, to Hidenwood Elementary School on March 22, 2024, and to Gildersleeve Middle School on April 1.
The Community Walk contingent of approximately 200 people included Delegate Shelly Simonds, Newport News School Board Chairman Dr. Terri Best, Vice Chair Maritsa Alger, board member Lisa Surles-Law and NNPS Superintendent Dr. Michele Mitchell.
Kelly continues to lead members of the CNU community as they join local education, law enforcement and civic leaders on walks on campus and to surrounding schools. The latest route sent walkers on a blustery morning from the Ferguson Center for the Arts down Warwick Boulevard and onto Copeland Lane, and then back to CNU.
Warwick's cheerleaders greeted the guests with a specially-created CNU cheer and the band played several selections. Student groups including the NJROTC, representatives from the Governor's Health Sciences Academy, International Baccalaureate Programme and several Raiders athletic teams were on hand to welcome the visitors in front of the school.
"On behalf of my administrative team, my staff, and my students, we want to officially welcome you to Warwick High School," said Warwick Principal Tiffany Thompson, before she declared Kelly an honorary Raider, pinned a Warwick lapel pin onto his jacket and presented a Raiders baseball cap that he wore for the rest of the occasion. "We also want to thank you for including Warwick High School as a part of your Newport News community walks.
"Christopher Newport University and Newport News Public Schools have shared a long, strong partnership with each other. And we especially want to thank you for your dedication and commitment as CNU's sixth president, and the president of our own hometown university, for supporting what we're doing today and supporting our students and our community."
Thompson presented gifts to Kelly, who gifted a basketball game day at CNU for Warwick students to attend a men's and women's basketball doubleheader during the upcoming season where the bands and cheerleaders from Warwick and CNU will perform together.
Macoi Spencer, a 2023 Warwick graduate who attends CNU through its Community Captains program, spoke about the support she received at Warwick and urged students to interact with Warwick staff and apply to CNU. She thanked the Warwick counseling department and Professional School Counselor Shawnya Simmons for encouraging her.
"The Community Captains program has done wonders for my life," Spencer said. "It has opened up a world of opportunities and networking developments in my professional and career development."
Kelly presented challenge coins to Thompson and Simmons "as a token of appreciation and a symbol of excellence."
"Our goal as Christopher Newport University is to be the hometown university for the Peninsula, the Southside and the Hampton Roads region," Kelly said. "And we darn well better be the hometown university for the high school that's right across the street from us.
"We are grateful for the relationship and we have so many Captains who are Raiders and they will always be Raiders, and now they are Captains."
