About

Aaliyah Weatherington was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Growing up with a father in the Army, Aaliyah was no stranger to moving. When her father retired from the Army in 2010, her family found themselves in Florida. After an expanded job search, Aaliyah’s family moved to Jacksonville, NC, where they currently reside. During her years in high school, Aaliyah was a part of a program called AVID. TAaliyah knew from the moment she stepped foot on campus that UNCP was the university for her.  

Aaliyah graduated in December of 2019 with a bachelor’s in geo-environmental studies, geography track, and a minor in African American studies. Throughout her collegiate career, she has received many awards and scholarships including: The Chancellor’s Incentive Endowment scholarship, the Academic Enhancement scholarship, the Thomas E. and Cheryl E. Ross scholarship, and the David Kuo Memorial scholarship. She was also a member of the Kappa Chapter of Alpha Chi National College Honor Society and the Lambda Sigma Honors Society. She joined the honors college her sophomore year. One of the most rewarding aspects of being a part of the honors community was the ability to join even after her freshman acceptance. Aaliyah enjoyed that the classes she took in the Maynor Honors College curriculum were different from her high school honors classes.  

Aaliyah was required to take a class on the history of hip-hop for her minor. The knowledge she gained during this class inspired her senior project topic for the honors college. She conducted research on how geography affected the hip-hop genre. Her research focused mainly on Chicago, but she did include research on other inner cities of America.  

Aaliyah plans to pursue a career in Geographic Information System Mapping, also known as GIS. When asked if she had any information to share with future honors college students at UNCP, Aaliyah wanted to encourage each student to enjoy themselves and not allow the stress to overwhelm them.