- January 7, 2026
Mainland senior Jayla Long. Photo by Michele Meyers
Standing O - Mainland senior Jayla Long. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland senior Jayla Long. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland senior Jayla Long. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland senior Jayla Long was in Dillard’s department store on Dec. 19 when she took a scroll break on Instagram. While perusing, she noticed there was a reel posted on Spelman College’s admissions page about receiving blue envelopes, the school’s official acceptance letters, via email.
She said her heart was racing as she refreshed her email and saw the letter.
“I’m praying and thinking whatever happens is in God’s hands,” she said. “I opened the letter and saw ‘Congratulations. It is an honor to welcome you to the 145th class of Spelman College.’ I went through so many different phases of emotions, started to jump and scream. Then the next thing I knew, I’m crying.”
Spelman College is Long’s dream school. She also applied to Florida A&M University where her mother, Kristie Long, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biological and agricultural systems engineering and her older sister, Jade, is majoring in molecular and cellular biology. Jade graduated from Mainland in 2024.
Kristie taught regular and AP chemistry at Mainland where she was Science Teacher of the Year in 2019 and named 2022-23 Teacher of the Year. She was also one of the five finalists for Volusia County School District’s 2022-23 Teacher of the Year.
“She’s amazing and that’s where I get it from,” Jayla Long said. “(Mainland Principal Melissa Fraine) said I look just like my mom and I do everything just like my mom.”
Kristie graduated from Mainland in 1997. It would have been 30 years exactly between their graduations, but at the age of 2, Jayla pleaded to stay at school when her sister Jade started kindergarten at the Basilica School of Saint Paul. Jayla graduated from Saint Paul at 13 years old before attending Mainland her freshman year.
I love service but what really makes me happy is celebrating other people. There’s always someone to be celebrated.
— JAYLA LONG, Mainland High School Standing O
Going from a private school of approximately 200 to Mainland with about 2,000 students, Jayla said, was much more difficult than she thought it would be. She considered leaving. Her mom convinced her to give it a chance and she finished her freshman year in the top 10 of her class with a 4.0 GPA.
The following year, Kristie worked in Seminole County while Jayla and her sister continued at Mainland. Jayla lost her footing slightly following her grandfather Eddie Butts’ death that spring.
“My grandfather was our biggest cheerleader,” Jayla said. “His passing made me want to do everything I could do to the fullest extent because I know that’s what we were taught to do and we were never expected to do less.”
Junior year was the launch of Jayla’s self-proclaimed leadership tour. She joined the Student Advisory Committee and was voted the committee chair. She was also chosen to be one of three juniors to represent Mainland in the Tomorrow’s Leaders Program of the FUTURES Foundation for Volusia County Schools. She began participating on the School Advisory Council.
On Dec. 3, Fraine recommended Jayla for the Martin Luther King Scholarship. Fraine said, in her position, she’s “had the privilege of witnessing many outstanding students but Jayla stands out as a scholar-leader whose character, service and determination reflect the very ideals of Dr. King — excellence, purpose, leadership and an unwavering commitment to lifting others.”
Fraine wrote in her recommendation letter that Jayla represents the “future of leadership” and is “thoughtful, courageous, empathetic and principled.”
“Her mom has done a good job, for sure,” Fraine said. “Jayla is so outstanding in every way.”
Jayla is currently ranked eighth out of 424 seniors — the top two-percent of her class. She maintains a 4.3 weighted GPA while being dual-enrolled at Daytona State College and attends multiple sporting events throughout the year as a student athletic trainer.
This year, she is a member of the Superintendent’s Advisory Leadership Team and was chosen to take the lead on an anti-bullying project which encompasses a two-part student mentoring program for Mainland students overall and for young men.
“I thought student mentoring from other students would be so lovely for us because there’s always someone who needs someone to talk to or needs that older brother or older sister in their life,” she said. “Boys around the school, in general, need mentors. I feel like they need to see people who they would want to look up to. My idea was to have community members or someone they could look up to and confide in as mentors.”
Visits to the John H. Dickerson Community Center with her grandmother Jestine Butts instilled a strong sense of community for Jayla when she was growing up. Her grandmother and grandfather also founded the Butts Miracle Temple and Jayla currently attends the New Heart Christian Center run by Bishop George E. Butts Sr. Jayla said seeing her family being so supportive of one another has led her to do the same for others.
“I love service, but what really makes me happy is celebrating other people,” she said. “There’s always someone to be celebrated.”
