Plymouth native and entrepreneur Kelshon Deionte Wilkins proudly wears many hats, and indeed, makes a few of them too as part of his SweetRose Kollection business. However, there’s far more to the young multifaceted businessman and faith leader than at first meets the eye.

Wilkins grew up with a passion for education and teaching. Moreover, he has always had a nurturing spirit, something that was fostered and shaped by his early work alongside his grandmother Rhonda Wilkins.

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and I’ve always worked in childcare, mostly as an assistant to my grandmother at Busy Bee Childcare,” he recalls fondly. “I did that all throughout high school so that had me around kids all of the time… it really gave me a penchant for caring for others and encouraging them to grow.”

After graduating as part of the final class of Plymouth High School in 2018, Wilkins attended Winston Salem State University where he is currently pursuing a degree in Elementary Education.

Throughout his time at Winston, Wilkins would often return home and work at his grandmother’s daycare center during the summers, building his résumé and nurturing his budding education chops along the way.

Since that time he has also been attending Beaufort County Community College where he’s majoring in First and Kindergarten education.

“I’m currently at Winston-Salem State University and I’m coming up on my last year there, where I’m majoring in elementary education,“ he says. “I’m also a student at Beaufort County Community College where I’m majoring in first and kindergarten education and early childhood. I’ve completed my early childhood portion and I’m in my last semester for the First through Kindergarten education.”

Notably, during his time as a student at Winston-Salem, Wilkins was drawn into the cloth, taking him aside from his schooling and shifting his focus away becoming an educator for some time.

“While I was a student at Winston, I briefly stopped my schooling to go into the ministry,” he says proudly. “It was definitely a time of transition for me and that’s the reason I’ve bounced around a bit between the different schools and circled back to education for these last few years.”

To this day, Wilkins maintains a growing influential faith leader and has been recently appointed to the position of Overseer last September at his church...