![\"Charles](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1024x768_IMGERACKLEY1.gif\" "\\"Charles")
Charles Rackley now understands the power of his family’s history and how it winds\n into his road. (Photo special to FAMU)<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a road in Tallahassee near Jake Gaither Golf Course. It\u2019s a road that carries
\n both a name and a legacy long before Florida A&M University\u2019s newest high-achieving
\n scholar ever stepped on campus. Rackley Drive, named after Charles Rackley\u2019s great-grandfather, Lonnie Rackley Sr., is a salute to a Black builder whose hands constructed homes and neighborhoods during
\n a time when Black entrepreneurship was not the norm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, his great-grandson is graduating from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering with
\n the highest GPA in his class, a 3.9.<\/p>\n
Finding a New but Familiar Path <\/p>\n
Charles, a civil engineering major from Wesley Chapel, didn\u2019t plan to follow family
\n lineage. In fact, he openly resisted it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wasn’t strongly considering FAMU at first because I did not want to go and
\n be a legacy,\u201d he said. \u201cMy parents went there. My grandparents went there. At first,
\n I wanted to do something different.\u201d<\/p>\n
But legacies have a way of spinning the block. For Charles, the engineering spark
\n came unexpectedly in high school after watching the growth of his once-quiet suburb
\n outpace the development. Traffic backups and deteriorating roads were becoming the
\n norm.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I was being a little cocky,\u201d he laughed, \u201cBut I felt like I could have planned
\n the traffic infrastructure a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n
That confidence wasn\u2019t arrogance. It was more like his family\u2019s history beckoning
\n him.<\/p>\n
Charles Rackley now understands the power of his family’s history and how it winds
\n into his road. (Photo special to FAMU)<\/p>\n
Orientation, Community, and the Hill<\/p>\n
Charles\u2019 mother, Qiana Rackley, says they never pressured him to attend their alma mater.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always wanted him to make his own choice about college,\u201d she said. \u201cEven though
\n we raised him with FAMU values.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, when Charles chose the Rattler life, they were somewhat shocked and thrilled.
\n She also understood what he was stepping into:<\/p>\n
\u201cFAMU, like any HBCU, offers something rare: a true safe space where you’re free from
\n the usual judgments about skin color, hair, or style that exist in the \u2018real world.\u2019
\n It\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charles felt that immediately. Although he had attended plenty of FAMU football games,
\n homecomings and the like, orientation was his first time experiencing the campus without
\n family. And that\u2019s when he knew he was home. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was a little bit nervous, of course to be around all Black people at first. Growing
\n up, I only had like two other Black people in my classes. But here I quickly found
\n my people,\u201d he recalled. \u201cOrientation was just a good time. We walked around campus.
\n We walked to the gas station. We walked all the way to CollegeTown on the first night.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, as one may expect, his new home eventually led him back to his roots. \u00a0<\/p>\n
A Top Scholar<\/p>\n
Charles didn\u2019t know he would graduate with the highest GPA until a classmate texted
\n him from an event he accidentally missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were like, \u2018Charles\u2026 you got an award. Go see Dr. Spainhour she has it,\u2019\u201d he
\n explained. \u201cI really wasn\u2019t expecting it honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lisa Spainhour, Ph.D., P.E., professor and chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department in the
\n FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, said the recognition is well deserved.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcademically, Charles is among the top students in the college. But where he truly
\n shines is outside the classroom, where he has done everything from undergraduate research
\n to helping with outreach events,\u201d Spainhour said. \u201cI called on him many times to showcase
\n his sustainable demolition work to department visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Charles tried to minimize his accomplishments, his mother wasn\u2019t having that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m beyond proud of him. Watching his hard work pay off in such an extraordinary
\n way fills me with joy. He\u2019s always been humble, and I knew he might try to downplay
\n this achievement,\u201d she said. \u201cBut earning the highest GPA is no small feat. I wanted
\n him to truly embrace this moment because it represents years of effort, sacrifice,
\n and perseverance.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in her words, \u201cThis is something worth celebrating.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Charles](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1024x768_IMGERackleyStop.gif\" "\\"Charles")
After graduation, Charles Rackley will pursue his master’s in geotechnical engineering.
\n (Photo special to FAMU)<\/p>\n
Research and Discovery<\/p>\n
Equally worth celebrating are the opportunities Charles explored during his undergraduate
\n years. First working with a Ph.D. student in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering on
\n reducing carbon emissions from construction and demolition sites. Later, he ran simulations
\n at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque to identify metals that could withstand
\n the heat of a fusion reactor.<\/p>\n
For those unfamiliar with the field, this work was significant and played a key role
\n in helping him define the career path he wanted to pursue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good time, but I don\u2019t think it was for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
What ultimately felt right was something unexpectedly quirky: designing salmon passageways
\n during his internship with Kiewit, one of North America\u2019s largest and most respected
\n engineering and construction organizations, in Colorado.<\/p>\n
Charles explained that salmon, the primary food source for a Native tribe in Washington
\n State, had become increasingly scarce due to underground construction. Washington
\n State needed safer routes for salmon migration after old culverts blocked natural
\n movement. Kiewit was contracted to find the solution.<\/p>\n
Charles helped design the structures that would open those pathways.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing. I did a lot of different things, and it was so good for me to experience
\n all of that. The work had me really excited. This is the work I want to do with my
\n degree,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
This was the work that would connect his present to his past and then back to his
\n future.<\/p>\n
The Legacy Continues<\/p>\n
As a child visiting Rackley Drive, Charles had no interest in why a road bore his
\n family\u2019s last name. But years later, as a young man, his father, Charles Rackley Jr.,
\n took him back and the picture came into focus.<\/p>\n
His great-grandfather, Lonnie Rackley Sr., a Black man running a construction company
\n perhaps decades before integration, built every house on Rackley Drive and many others
\n around Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
Charles didn\u2019t know any of this when he chose civil engineering. But when he found
\n out?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like confirmation,\u201d he said. \u201cLike this is what I\u2019m supposed to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
His father and mother see the connection, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis great-grandfather\u2019s knowledge of building and creating runs deep in our family.
\n It\u2019s a skillset passed down through generations,\u201d Charles Rackley Jr. said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Charles isn\u2019t leaving campus just yet. He\u2019s staying for a one-year master\u2019s in geotechnical
\n engineering, the specialty that studies the soils and foundations everything else
\n depends on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thrilled that Charles will be returning to our program this spring as a master\u2019s
\n student. I can\u2019t wait to see what impact he will make in grad school and beyond,\u201d
\n Spainhour said.<\/p>\n
And his dream employer, at least for now, is Kiewit. He wants to return and keep doing
\n the kind of work that moves communities, literally and figuratively.<\/p>\n
His father sees something bigger unfolding:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever direction he chooses, he will build on our family name in his own way. He\u2019s
\n charting a path that\u2019s uniquely his,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A road once built by his great-grandfather still stands in Tallahassee.
A new road is now being built by Charles.<\/p>\n
![\"Charles](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1024x768_IMGERackleyOT.gif\" "\\"Charles")
Charles Rackley is building a strong foundation to make sure his future is structurally
\n sound. (Photo special to JSU)<\/p>\n
Media Contact:<\/p>\n
Rachel James-Terry
Senior Director of Strategic Communcations
rachel.jamesterry@famu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n