Duke University in Durham, N.C., is a thousand miles and light years away from Eufaula.
Ranked No. 6 by US News and World Report’s Best National University rankings, it attracts some of the best and the brightest students in the world.
Among them is sophomore Avery Armstrong, a 2023 graduate of Eufaula High School who was one of the most intellectually gifted students to walk the halls of the Ironheads.
Among his many scholastic admirers is retired history teacher Roger Thompson, who felt privileged to have had Avery in his classroom for three years.
Thompson recognized Avery’s potential early on.
“He was in all honors classes. You could tell he took education seriously. Any assignment he was given was done on time and in an outstanding manner, not just in my class but all of his classes,” Thompson said.
Throughout Avery’s elementary and middle school years, he was frequently on the principal and superintendent’s honor rolls.
In high school he wasn’t an athlete but excelled in the classroom and every other area: Oklahoma High School Honors Society, National Honors Society President, Class President (Jr/Sr), Academic Team All-Conference, EHS Chess Club President, Student Council Vice President, EHS Historical Club President.
He participated in a Court Intern program at the McIntosh County Courthouse, collaborating with the judge and bailiff to observe court proceedings.
Thompson is a legend for taking people, students and non-students, around the country and the world.
Avery accompanied Thompson on tours of Washington D.C., Gettysburg and Antietam.
“Mr. Thompson taught me the world is bigger than Eufaula,” Avery said.
Avery applied for many scholarships to help him with college.
“He didn’t have an easy life, but he didn’t let that stop him,” Thompson said.
Among the offers he received was the prestigious Bill Gates Scholarship, a full-ride scholar-ship to any college of his choosing.
“This wasn’t luck,” Thompson said. “He started in his freshman year trying to figure out a way to go to college. He worked on it consistently. He kept his grades up. He has good character. Hard work and determination, he is the epitome of those.”
Avery chose Duke, home of the Blue Devils, winner of five national basketball championships, appearances in 11 Championships and in 17 Final Fours.
It is now in contention for another National Championship, thanks to outstanding player Cooper Flagg.
Legendary Duke basketball coach Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski has been a hero to Avery, and he will have the good fortune of meeting him when the coach will be a guest speaker at one of Avery’s classes.
Avery is having many transformative experiences, and many more will come.
After years of admiring Duke from afar, Avery is now there, where he is majoring in philosophy and political science with the possibility of going to law school.
“I don’t necessarily want to practice law, but it helps you understand the system better, and how the government operates. I would like to pursue a career in venture capitalism, some side of finance or private equity. Money makes the world go round,” he said.
He chose philosophy and political science as undergraduate majors because, “Philosophy allows you to think, to think a little differently, and political science shows how groups work together.”
Outside the classroom, Avery has been accepted into Duke’s Reginaldo Howard Leadership Program.
He also has been accepted by Oxford University, Oxford England, for a six-week program this summer in which he will study philosophy and political science.
He is eagerly anticipating attending Oxford, one of the oldest universities in the world, where its first classes were taught in 1096.
“They teach a little differently at Oxford – one professor to two students,” he said.
But he will never forget his hometown.
He attributes his being who he is to his grandmother, Francile Burnham, his mother Natalie Armstrong and late father Durand West, who passed away in 2009 when Avery was four.
He has many friends and family members in Eufaula.
“Eufaula was a great place to grow up. It’s more than just the lake. There are a lot of good people,” he said.
Thompson says Eufaula schools provide a great foundation for students with high aspirations.
“When Avery goes to Oxford, he will be the third Eufaula High School graduate to go there. Two have studied there, and a third went to Cambridge.
“Right now, we have EHS students on full ride scholarships to Stanford and Columbia and one at West Point, and Avery at Duke. All of those kids are having their education paid for because of their academic efforts.” Armstrong’s journey serves as an inspiration to Eufaula students, proving that with hard work, ambition, and curiosity, the world’s top academic opportunities are within reach, Thompson said.
