Motorcycle Donations For Charity

At 30 years of age, Ana-Maria has everything she wants…career, family and an education that will never fail her. All because she chose to pursue her GED with Dallas Can! Academy. Ana-Maria, like more than 40% of Latina teenagers in Texas, found herself pregnant with her first child while in school. Struggling to continue on in school while being raising her child was more than a challenge…it was near impossible. After finishing the eighth grade, Ana-Maria did what many teens with families do. She dropped out of high school. “The summer I got out of ninth grade, I decided to drop out of high school and get my GED [General Equivalency Diploma],” she said. “I tested at Live Oak and was told I could take the GED test within a few weeks without having to attend the regular classes.” However, she didn’t give up. She went in search of a school that could meet her needs. Then she found Dallas Can! Academy. She chose Dallas Can! Academy, which was located on Live Oak Street at that time, because she wanted to make immediate changes in her life. Dallas Can! Afforded her the flexibility to raise her family while still pursuing an education. “It was such a short period for me, but I enjoyed that there was a program that was tailored to fit my immediate needs,” Ana-Maria said. “I was able to get in and get out and move to the next stage in my life.” She was able to take the GED test that summer. Earning her GED in 1995, she immediately put it to good use by enrolling at Dallas County Community College District at Eastfield. She quickly earned her Associate’s Degree in General Studies, then moved on to the University of Texas at Arlington to earn her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications. By the end of December, she will graduate with her Master’s of Business Administration. She plans on starting law school within a year. Today, Ana-Maria is the Executive Director of the Jubilee Community Center where she works with hundreds of families and children in the Jubilee Park neighborhood, revitalizing the community. “I was working in Marketing and Sales for another non-profit, but I wanted to work with the community and reach out to kids and families who were experiencing the same struggles I had growing up,” she said. “Dallas Can! Provided me the hand up I needed to keep moving.”

Ashley is currently a senior and transferred to the Fort Worth Can! Academy 3 years ago after attending her first 4 months of her freshman year at Southwest High School in Fort Worth. She heard about Fort Worth Can! and decided to transfer because she wanted to graduate early. 

She has since worked closely with her teachers and advisors to complete all her credits and is on target to graduate in February 2011, which will be 1 year ahead of schedule.  

In conjunction with her high school courses, Ashley is enrolled and taking courses at Tarrant County Junior College, where she will complete her basic requirements and plans on transferring to a University to study Marriage Counseling. 

"Ashley has come full circle, she now feels like continuing her education which is very important to her and she has made huge strides" added Mrs. Lewis, Fort Worth Can! Academy Campus Drive Principal.

Written By: Dametri Hubbard 

All my life I have had to overcome problems that I thought would never happen to me. I was born with asthma, and my little brother was born with Downs Syndrome. We are both black males, poor, and grew up in a bad neighborhood; we were born into problems. To top it off, a problem that I am still trying to overcome is the hard fight my mother put up against cancer for ten years leading to her ultimate death. She died on May 17, 2009. It still affects me every day of my life. 

That next year was one of the hardest years of my life. We were poorer than poor, living in Mason Manor trying to make it while my mama worked two jobs. She was then laid off because her employer felt she was supposed to enjoy her last days with her kids. No one could say the words “yo mama” without catching my fist in their teeth. That caused us to do a lot of moving. It seemed every school I went to there was always that one person who would always say it and make me mad. 

By 8th grade my mom thought it would be a good idea to move us to Pflugerville. It was a rough year, but I barely made it through. That summer my mama spent a lot of time in and out the hospital with medical procedures. It was now the first day of school at Pflugerville High. I made it through, went to football practice and ended up fighting with this guy. Luckily, I wasn’t suspended. The next day at school his homeboy approached me and said, “Let me see you do me like that…!” I didn’t say anything. I just started throwing a flurry of punches until he hit the floor. Then the whole football team jumped me in the main hallway. I injured three guys, so they expelled me and from the school district. The school called my mother out of bed to come get me. This only frazzled her more. 

I had to learn to control myself a little more. We ended up moving to some apartments. I transferred to another high school. The first year and a half there went alright, aside from the fact I was still slowly losing my mother. It was starting to be clearer that she would not be around for as long as I had thought. But I was going to school and taking care of business, the most important thing. Soon enough, the second semester of my sophomore year I was kicked out of high school for being an alleged gang member. 

That brought me to Austin Can! for a little while. It helped me out at the time by attending the PM session. In the morning I would take care of my mom, go to school from 12 to 4 and go straight back home to take care of her some more. That gave us alot of time to make memories. I finished the school year at Austin Can! with no problem. The following school year I decided to go back to my home high school, worst idea of my life. One day I had noone to call because I had just checked my mom into Seton hospital for her chemotherapy. That was the day I was expelled from AISD for gang relation and failure to ID. 

For two weeks I was out of school and in the hospital with my mother, watching her fade away slowly. Soon after she was shipped to San Antonio to a hospital specializing in cancer. She died in that hospital May 17, 2009. I made a promise to my mother that I would graduate and attend college so I could be rich and take care of her. I graduated from Austin Can! this past spring and kept my promise to my Mom, now I have to work on the second half of the promise.

There was a time when Ana didn’t have much hope for what her future might hold. Her days were filled with severe bouts of depression, sadness and even thoughts of suicide. Today, Ana is a new mom, wife and a young woman who sees a positive outlook for herself and her family’s future. She credits Houston Can! Academy Hobby campus for helping change her life and providing the foundation she needed to pursue her dream of becoming a registered nurse. “When I was going to South Houston High School, I was always fighting, hanging out with the wrong crowd and not going to class,” said Ana. “I knew if I stayed there I wasn’t going to be able graduate so I could better my life.” Ana, like many at-risk students who attend Houston Can! Academy, just needed an educational environment to give them the hope to become somebody extraordinary despite the challenges they have faced in their life. “I came here three years ago in the middle of tenth grade,” she explained. “The environment has been really good. There haven’t been any fights and the teachers really care and take time. My favorite classes were reading and parenting, which was very helpful, especially since I was about to have a baby and I learned a lot.” Ana found teacher expectations to be high, but that they were always there for support. “I failed the TAKS once the science part, but I passed all the other subjects on the first try,” she said. “The teachers gave us a lot of extensive tutoring for the test which helped. If you want to come here and take care of your business, you can definitely do it here.” Part of the first graduating class of 2008, Ana didn’t wait to get her diploma before starting to take a few nursing classes at San Jacinto College. She says she is up for the challenge of finishing the four year program while juggling school, work and motherhood duties for her son, Julio Jr. “My sister died of AIDS and I wanted to be a Doctor, but that was going to take too long, explained Ana. “I still wanted to be in the medical field so that I can help others, and nursing is a good way to make a difference.”

AJ Clemons is an Austin Can! student who will walk across the stage at the upcoming June Graduation Ceremony. “I was an A-B honor roll student throughout elementary and middle school. When I started high school the word “school” was not in my vocabulary. I was skipping class and I got into everything but the books. After a while I began to see myself stuck in the same pattern. The very same people I went to middle school with were walking the stage and I was left behind. I had to think long and hard about what I was going to do with my life. That was when I was introduced to Austin Can! Academy, where second chances are given. Most people in my shoes would have given up and dropped out but here I stand getting my high school diploma at the age of 22. None of my sisters or brothers graduated from high school. I am grateful and very happy to be the first. See, I know now, that high school is where adulthood begins. Austin Can! is where I learned new things, met great people, and began my new life. Now, I’m ready for college and look forward to a career in music and business management.”