For the third year in a row, teens are getting a second chance to earn a high school diploma or complete a general equivalency diploma (GED) through the Gateway After School Program.
The Sweet Home High School program is a part of the three-year Community Learning Center’s grant program. The program is in its final year.
The purpose of the program is two-fold, teacher Pat Davis said. Most of the students in the class are preparing to take GED tests. Gateway also offers credit retrieval for students who have been working but slip behind in credits.
Davis works with all of the teachers, who help establish what work is necessary for a student to earn the missing credit. Teachers can also veto credit retrieval for students who were goofing off or simply not showing up to class.
It is aimed at students who were involved in the class but for some reason got behind, Davis said. Those students are mostly juniors and seniors who are getting nervous about not having enough credits to graduate.
The key for them is to graduate on time, Davis said. They realize they are behind and go see a counselor who refers them to Davis.
Right now, Sweet Home High School has five students in credit retrieval programs. They work an independent course of study based on what a teacher requires. Their courses for retrieval may range from making up missed assignments to something more elaborate. That depends on the individual student’s specific situations.
Those students are required to spend two and a half hours per week in the credit retrieval program but attend school normally during the day.
Students in the GED program attend class from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. when Davis provides preparation for GED testing.
Getting a GED is not easy any more, Davis said. Until January, the GED was easier to achieve, Davis said, but the standards for earning it were increased then. A typical program takes two to three years prior to testing. The students in the GED program are high-school age youths who dropped out or fell so far behind they won’t graduate until they’re 20 or 21 years old.
This is not the easiest road to take, Davis said. “I tell kids when they come in, ‘Do the four years. It’s easier than trying to do the GED.’ I say, ‘Where are your friends right now (after school)?’ They’re out doing what they want to do.’ We don’t want it to get to the point they think it’s easier because it’s not.”
For 99 of 100 students, Davis said he would suggest avoiding going for a GED and earn a high school diploma instead. The ones who need the GED are those who dropped out as sophomores and are getting older.
Linn-Benton Community College still operates its own GED program, Davis said. “Typically, what some of these guys have conveyed to me, you’re going to find adults in classroom settings, like a college class.”
That’s why high-school age students would rather attend the high school program, Davis said.
Davis would like “to build the program to the point where it’s consistent, to make it a positive thing so it’s here at all times, so it’s an option though not the first option,” he said. He wants it to be an avenue where youths can achieve their goals.
Most of his students choose to be there finishing their education, Davis said. He is just a facilitator.
In his first year working in the program, he has had one student complete credits to graduate after falling shy of what was needed to make it at the end of the last school year.
“We gave him his diploma,” Davis said. “It was a big deal because it was a difficult road for this young man.”
Three students in credit retrieval right now are on track to walk with their class at graduation, Davis said. One will take a little longer. In the GED part of the program, Denise Bonneville, 17, is nearly done and expects to earn her GED in February.
Living in Albany, Bonneville started her GED courses at LBCC. Later, she moved to Sweet Home to live with her father. She started in the program at SHHS. where she can get more one-on-one time with the teacher in a more comfortable atmosphere for a high-school age student.
“I dropped out when I was a freshman,” Bonneville said. “I want to go somewhere before I’m 21.”
To finish a high school diploma at this point would take another four years. She would be 21 before she earned it.
“I didn’t like high school,” Bonneville said. “It wasn’t for me. I didn’t like it.”
Dropping out left her somewhere she decided she didn’t want to be, affecting her employment opportunities.
“I wouldn’t be able to get the job I want,” Bonneville said. “I’m actually going for nursing. I guess I didn’t want to work at Safeway or McDonald’s the rest of my life.… I go home and study. I study all the time. I don’t … mess around. I study.”
She plans to wrap up her GED quickly, after beginning only in May.
She plans to attend LBCC right away, working a job to help attend school and receiving help from her father. There she plans to earn a college transfer degree then attend the University of Oregon.
To her peers, she offers, “don’t mess around with your life. If you’re in GED, don’t just be there because you have to be. Be somebody. Just because you dropped out of high school doesn’t mean you can’t be somebody.”
She recommends not even getting to that point. Bonneville said she definitely spends more time studying now than she would have had to in high school.
“It’s difficult at times,” Bonneville said. “You have to be really determined, I guess.”
For information, students may consult a counselor, visit Davis in the Career Center or call 367-7177.