2008 Woodie Awards
Garfield Campus Diploma Program Offers Pathway to Success
Corinna Scott
Issue date: 5/14/08 Section: Features
It's Tuesday afternoon in room 116 and the lab bustles with activity at the Garfield campus. Students gather at computer stations around the classroom and ask tutors for help while they work on assignments.
This lab houses the GED program where students come to earn their high school equivalency diplomas. Students from all walks of life congregate here, from single mothers, to high school students who may be retaking classes or taking extra classes, to those students who can barely read or write.
Beginning as a classroom in a bungalow, it was called "the shoebox" by Jan Young, who hired Jane DiLucchio to be in charge of the program."
From there it has grown into the program it is today: the GED or "The Pathways to Success" program as it is also called.
Ken Downie is working on earning his GED so that he can attend an Oxford Seminars course in order to teach English in Japan where his wife Takako and three children are now living.
After having dropped out of high school in the 11th grade due to a serious leg injury, Downie went to work for his father's termite company. Later, when he earned his contractor's license, his father hosted a family from Japan and that is when he met Takako. He went to Japan to ask her father for her hand in marriage and they had two weddings, one Japanese and the other European-style.
He plans to see his family again in July. He says he misses them very much.
"I've wanted to come back and get my GED and took it upon myself to walk through that door and get the GED repeated. I knew there would be computers, books and teachers, but I had no idea there would be so many smiles and so many kind people," Downie said.
Ruth Akins spoke at a board of trustees meeting in March on behalf of DiLucchio who had guided her through earning her diploma. She hadn't graduated from the 10th grade, but decided to attend the Garfield Campus and earned her diploma at the age of 80.
This lab houses the GED program where students come to earn their high school equivalency diplomas. Students from all walks of life congregate here, from single mothers, to high school students who may be retaking classes or taking extra classes, to those students who can barely read or write.
Beginning as a classroom in a bungalow, it was called "the shoebox" by Jan Young, who hired Jane DiLucchio to be in charge of the program."
From there it has grown into the program it is today: the GED or "The Pathways to Success" program as it is also called.
Ken Downie is working on earning his GED so that he can attend an Oxford Seminars course in order to teach English in Japan where his wife Takako and three children are now living.
After having dropped out of high school in the 11th grade due to a serious leg injury, Downie went to work for his father's termite company. Later, when he earned his contractor's license, his father hosted a family from Japan and that is when he met Takako. He went to Japan to ask her father for her hand in marriage and they had two weddings, one Japanese and the other European-style.
He plans to see his family again in July. He says he misses them very much.
"I've wanted to come back and get my GED and took it upon myself to walk through that door and get the GED repeated. I knew there would be computers, books and teachers, but I had no idea there would be so many smiles and so many kind people," Downie said.
Ruth Akins spoke at a board of trustees meeting in March on behalf of DiLucchio who had guided her through earning her diploma. She hadn't graduated from the 10th grade, but decided to attend the Garfield Campus and earned her diploma at the age of 80.
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