Chavery McClanahan and Tremain Holloway will be crowned during a ceremony filled with the pomp and pageantry accorded a time-honored tradition. However, this year’s ceremony is special. The coronation coincides with North Carolina Central University’s Centennial. McClanahan and Holloway will be enthroned as Mr. and Miss NCCU. This royal event set for Sunday, October 25, 2009, at 6 p.m., at the B.N. Duke Auditorium, places the two seniors in the unique position to honor the 100-year-old legacy of the founder of the university, Dr. James E. Shepard.

The 21-year-old Chavery McClanahan is an English literature major from Landover, Maryland. She will graduate in May 2010 and wants to go to law school and then onto the Air Force JAG (Judge Advocate General) Corps. The Corps would expose Chavery to diversified areas of the law and allow her to, as she puts it, “serve her country and her community.”

Miss NCCU has been busy with campus activities, including service as vice president of the Black Law Students Association College Division; helping to build a Habitat for Humanity home; doing summer internships for customer service-oriented businesses and even waitressing. Chavery is modest and does not readily admit to her “big time” extracurricular resume built up in high school. She played softball, was part of a team-building skills group and was a commander in the junior ROTC, overseeing 365 fellow students.

McClanahan is humble. She says her selection as Miss NCCU is “monumental.” She adds, “It is an honor to wear the crown and to see the institution is still teaching, educating young after a century. I have to pay respect to the university, the professors who have given so much. I, too, want to give back—to live up to our motto of—Truth and Service.”

Rocky Mount’s Tremain Holloway is Mr. NCCU. This 21-year-old secondary education math major is eyeing a computer science degree after graduation from the university. Tremain admits he was not always about learning even though his mother taught business education at his old high school.

Holloway led what was considered a “charmed” life—he was the captain of the football and basketball teams. He was an athlete on the fast track. “I thought I was the man. I had all the girls. Duke, NC State and other college teams were calling me.” Then misfortune struck. On August 8, 2005, Holloway broke his leg and ankle during a practice game. “Those schools stopped calling. Those schools stopped writing,” says Tremain. Depressed, he picked up a book called The Pact about three young African-Americans who grew up in hardscrabble Newark, New Jersey. The three overcame adversity. Holloway admires the three for facing down the challenges of inner-city life. “They stuck it out and are now doctors,” Tremain states. “That’s when I realized God had a plan for me. If I could use the energy I use to catch a football or shoot a basket maybe I could used the energy to get good grades.” Holloway received a North Carolina Teaching Fellow Scholarship. Moreover, has set his sights on becoming the superintendent of schools for the State of North Carolina.

Cindy Love, the director of Student Professional Development in the School of Business is prepping McClanahan and Holloway for the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame Pageant Competition in Atlanta, which takes place at September 22 to September 27, 2009, Love says, “Chavery and Tremain represent the best in academics, moral character, leadership skills and they already have set a positive example as the Centennial Mr. and Miss NCCU.”