MABLETON - Sierra Edwards will be right at home on stage this afternoon as she accepts her diploma from Pebblebrook High School's Center for Excellence in the Performing Arts.

Sierra, 17, who began dancing before age 2, caught the acting bug in elementary school and her love of the stage pushed her to audition for any local talent shows she could find.

Four years ago, she was accepted into Pebblebrook's magnet program. Recently, her peers selected her as Most Outstanding Actor in Drama 4, and teachers named her Most Outstanding Drama Student.

"My parents have always told me I can be anything I want to be," Sierra said. "But now at this point in life - getting ready to graduate from high school - I'm really starting to see that I actually can be anything that I want to be."

Amid drama rehearsals and other obligations, Sierra has maintained a 3.67 grade point average, and was accepted to Spelman College, Georgia State, and Emerson College in Boston. But she chose to attend the University of Georgia because of its environment and an opportunity to earn a marketing management degree.

"I didn't want to get a degree in theater because I feel like a different kind of degree can open up more opportunities," Sierra said. Even so, she won't rule out participating in drama.

"I don't think I'll be able to help it," she said. "It's always been such a part of who I am."

Her father, Stanley Edwards, who works in the wireless industry and also acts, said Sierra has never been bashful about performing in front of others. He and his wife, Sherall, are also parents to Sabrina, 11, and a son, Spencer, 8.

"Everyone in the family can tell you that she always said she's going to be a star," Sherall Edwards said. "She is the vision of what God showed me she would be: a young lady that would be strong. I think people draw to her because they feel she has a certain strength in her."

Last year at Pebblebrook, Sierra performed in the comedic play, "Durang Me," for which she won best performance, and in a production of Shakespeare's "As You Like It."

This year, she played sister Beneatha Younger in "A Raisin in the Sun."

"That was the best experience I've had at Pebblebrook," she said. "I got an opportunity to really dive into a character in a different way that I never had before. It was liberating being able to play who my grandparents might have been or their parents might have been, on stage. I really feel it changed lives."

Sierra was among a handful of students chosen to direct a short-scene play in the school's Drama 4 Project. On May 11, she made her directorial debut with a production of "Wait Until Dark," Frederick Knott's play about a blind woman outsmarting con artists. The experience, she said, allowed her to see drama from a different perspective.

"Sierra is mature and has a very bright future ahead of her," stated Jerica Creswell, an assistant principal.

In addition to theater, Sierra is president of Pebblebrook's Students Against Destructive Decisions, and a member of the Peer Helpers counseling group, Beta Club, and Allstate's Keep the Drive safety campaign. She was a finalist in the Governor's Honors Program, and she also played volleyball.

Sierra was also voted Most Attractive by her classmates and selected Miss Falcon at a school pageant.

Drama teacher Katie Grant-Shalin is among Sierra's many fans.

"She has transformed in front of our eyes from a sassy 14-year-old, to a questioning, thought-provoking multitalented young woman," Grant-Shalin said. "She is an amazing actress, an incredibly strong academic and her charisma alone could carry her miles."