Lessons in life come in and out of the classroom, and Lyrica Squires of Wilson learned firsthand how powerful they can be during her senior year in high school.

“These lessons can change your life,” Squires said.

As part of a senior project at Fike High School in Wilson, Squires started a club called Project Unify. The club helped integrate special education and traditional students. In 2012 the club hosted its first basketball game. The teams were made up of three special education students and two traditional education students.

“I was really nervous going into the game,” Squires said. “But it was really cool to see how accepting the traditional students were and letting the special education students have the spotlight for a change.”

Her father, Marvin, couldn’t be more thrilled with his daughter. He shared the Project Unify story in the lottery’s N.C. Proud Moments in Education contest, becoming one of ten people to win $20,000.

“The proudest aspect was to see the happiness she brought those kids and see how excited they were to be recognized by their classmates,” her father said. “It’s a good legacy to leave at the high school.”

Squires said she took the lessons she learned from this experience with her to UNC-Wilmington where she’s about to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in recreation. She plans to attend graduate school. The prize money will help pay back student loans.

In the N.C. Proud Moments contest, the Education Lottery asked North Carolinians to share their proudest moments in education and how they would use $20,000 to create more proud moments. The lottery received hundreds of moving responses. A panel of judges chose 10 winners from the 100 entries that got the most votes. The contest helped mark the lottery’s 10th anniversary as it raises money to support education programs in North Carolina. Since 2006, the lottery has raised more than $4.6 billion. The winners’ submissions and a video featuring their stories are posted on the N.C. Proud Moments website, located at http://www.ncproudmoments.com/.