Program News 2007
The Class of 2007
As the 2006-2007 school year drew to a close last month, graduations were celebrated across Good Shepherd’s high school programs, including some graduating their very first classes.
ACCESS GED, our full-time GED program with a special focus on the needs of older adolescents, topped off a highly successful inaugural year of operation with a ceremony honoring sixty-nine graduates. Dominic Carter, political news reporter for NY1 delivered a powerful keynote speech, sharing the memory of being told by a high school guidance counselor that college applications were a waste of time for a boy from a Bronx housing project, “because he thought I’d be dead or in jail within a year.” Carter, who earned a college degree within three years of graduating high school, congratulated the ACCESS graduates for refusing to be deterred by naysayers and concluded his speech by bringing the class of 2007 up to the podium with him to sing along with ‘I Believe I Can Fly.’
The School for Community Research and Learning (SCRL), a collaborative, small high school in which Good Shepherd is the lead partner, also celebrated its first graduation this year. Thirty-six young people, including a resident of our St. Helena’s community group residential program, received their diplomas at an emotional ceremony at Lehman College’s Lovinger Theatre. Various awards and academic medals were distributed as well as diplomas, including a special award presented to Jim Marley, Good Shepherd’s Assistant Executive Director for Bronx Community-Based Programs, and Diana Torres, the Division Director who oversees SCRL. “We are the first-born of our school,” said Valedictorian Jason Escalera, recalling the early days, when he and his classmates entered as SCRL’s original freshman class and the entire school operated out of a single room. “The strength of our school has always been that we can work through any problems. SCRL is a small school, but it is packed with big rewards.”
West Brooklyn Community High School, our second transfer school, also graduated its first class in June, as did the Young Adult Borough Centers at Canarsie High School in Brooklyn, and Monroe High School in the Bronx.
July 13, 2007
