NATCHEZ —Reneé Wall spent the first 12 years of her education in the  Natchez-Adams School District, and now, as a new school board member, Wall said she is ready to start changing things.

Wall was young when the north and south city schools consolidated but said she remembers seeing so many of her friends flee the public system.

At the time, she believed her parents, Roger and Patricia Davis, kept their children in public school because they were unable to move to a new school.

“As I got older, I learned that my parents were just advocates for a public school,” she said. “That’s what they believed. I believe that, too.”

Perhaps, she said, her parents’ belief in education was why she became interested in public school systems and their effect on the community.

Wall was accepted into Louisiana State University on a full academic scholarship after graduating from Natchez High School in 2002.

Following her undergraduate degree, she earned a doctorate in physical therapy at the University of St. Augustine in Florida.

She moved back home in 2009 and began coaching soccer at Natchez High School alongside her job as a physical therapist.

All through college, Wall said she believed her circumstances were no better or worse than anyone else’s in her class here in Natchez.

They all took the same classes, she said, had the same teachers. Nothing separated them from receiving a higher education, as she had.

When she began working with the Natchez students on the soccer field, however, she said her perspective began to shift.

“My parents paid for me to take the ACT five times — not everybody can afford that,” she said.

Her parents had paid for her college applications — even sat down with her and helped fill them out.

She thought about her full academic scholarship — the one that had enabled her to attend the college of her choice.

“The reason I was even able to apply was because my parents were alumni,” she said. “It started making me realize that it’s not necessarily that these kids went to the same school I went to, but that there are different things in our environments that benefit a person.”

Wall said she wanted to use her experience with college and scholarship applications to help students in the area. It would be simple, she thought — just a community organization dedicated to helping young students.

With a coalition of members from Natchez Young Professionals, she proposed her idea to the previous superintendent Dr. Frederick Hill.

They did not say no, she said. It was not a flat refusal.

But by the time she left the office, she knew the program would not happen. At least not yet.

When the fire driving the mentorship program died, Wall took a job as a  traveling physical therapist.

“I was burned out,” she said. “I decided I wanted to travel and get out of Natchez.”

Last year, Wall returned to Natchez. She married her best friend, David Wall, and took a job in town.

As she settled down, she began to think about the students in the district again, she said.

When friends in town recommended she apply to be on the school board, Wall said she initially refused.

At first, she felt too much politics or controversy would exist, but Wall said the good she can do on the board outweighed her worries.

On Sept. 19, Wall took the oath and became a new member of the Natchez-Adams School Board.

As a board member, Wall said she has high goals. She wants to be a bridge for community input and an advocate for students and teachers.

She wants to highlight stories of success in the district and get to know her students personally, as she did her soccer players.

And, almost five years after initially proposing the community mentorship program, Wall said she hopes to revisit the idea in the coming months.

“I went to school there. I worked there. I decided that I want to see it work,” Wall said. “I want to make a difference.”