Thousands of fresh-faced high school graduates filed through the Veterans Memorial Coliseum this month, happy to transition out of their teenage years.
But the small group of students who threw their caps in the air inside the Multnomah Building in Southeast Portland on June 6 celebrated the closure of something much more somber.
Most of these graduates, members of the Londer Learning Center, have overcome drug addiction, prison, homelessness and similar hardships.
The GED certificates they received on June 6 proved much more than their mastery of high-school level math and writing – they signaled self-esteem, restored family ties and perseverance.
One of a kind
The Londer Learning Center is the only adult education program in Oregon that that caters exclusively to adults who’ve recently been released from prison or drug treatment facilities.
The center operates in a county building on Southwest Fifth Avenue in downtown Portland, where it helps about 800 students per year move toward a high school equivalency diploma, said Carole Scholl, a community justice manager who leads the center.
Students have to be referred to the center by a probation officer, parole officer, drug treatment program or judge, Scholl said. One exception: last year, the center participated in a nationwide push to graduate more GED students before new tests were rolled out in January. As part of this effort, students without referrals from law enforcement or drug counselors were admitted for special weekend classes taught by volunteers.
(These students were also in the June 6 ceremony, which is why not everyone shown in these photos can be assumed to have a criminal record or drug-abuse history.)
Classes at the center are small, never more than 15 people. And every one of its 11 employees knows that it’s a “huge deal for these people to make the leap back to school,” Scholl said.
The students’ ages range from 18 to 60. And most of them are in a transitional phase of their lives, battling addiction, housing issues and unemployment.
Recognizing these special difficulties in their students’ lives is the focus of the center staff. If a student’s attendance falls off, for example, teachers call to see what prompted the change. They provide stress toys — squeeze balls that restore calmness — in class for students who last dealt with algebra two decades ago.
“We want to be that positive place where they can see success,” Scholl said.
Success, completion and achievement can be scary concepts.
Gerbil on a wheel
Nobody understands the fear of success better than the keynote speaker of the June 6 ceremony — Londer alumna Myldred Silvia.
Silvia dropped out of high school as a sophomore in 1984. She was using drugs and “wanted to get fast money and do anything to cheat the system,” Silvia said, a week before the graduation ceremony.
By 1988, she was sick of using, but her beloved grandmother’s death caused a mental breakdown. “I really got into my addiction after that,” Silvia said. She didn’t successfully enter treatment again until 2010.
Silvia finally got clean and enrolled at Londer. She reconnected with her family and turned into a role model for her children.
But her struggle wasn’t over yet. Thought patterns formed over decades didn’t just vanish overnight. “I found out I was scared of success,” Silvia said.
She realized she’d gotten comfortable with failure and limitations.
“I was like a gerbil in a cage,” Silvia said. “I could jump on the wheel or get off my wheel — but I was still in the cage. I kept myself in a box for a long time.”
The closer Silvia got to being finishing her GED, the more she got scared. Teachers took her aside, asked her why she failed tests even though she had mastered the lessons. They called her at home to make sure she was OK.
“The love they showed me there — it made me realize I wasn’t going through this by myself,” Silvia said.
Through therapy, Silvia realized she had internalized the harsh words family members had said to her during her years of drug abuse. “I retained some of those things and believed I wasn’t capable,” she said.
But it turns out she’s very capable. Silvia received her GED certificate last year and went on to Portland Community College, where she promptly made the Dean’s List — meaning her grades averaged at least 3.5, out of a possible 4.
She’s thinking about going on to Portland State University once she completes her classes at PCC to get a degree in social work. Silvia wants to pass on the help she received in these last four years of recovery.
Progress, not perfection
Current graduate Timothy Pool also plans on giving back.
One of the speakers at the June 6 ceremony, Pool said being back in school felt to him like having a second chance in life. “I’d never completed nothing — ever,” Pool said to center staff at the graduation event.
Pool, 37, said that he started using drugs during his senior year in high school. He dropped out of school and “chose drugs and crime,” spending years in and out of jail.
He got clean in 1998 and fixed up his life, but a car wreck in 2004 put him in a nine-day coma. He left the hospital and became addicted to the painkiller oxycodone. Last year he checked himself into a treatment center. After his initial treatment, a counselor at Impact NW, where Pool received transition services, suggested he get his GED.
After finishing his classes at Londer last winter, he’s now on the President’s List at PCC — at least a 3.75 grade average — and plans to go to PSU to get a master’s in social science. He wants to work with young families who are struggling.
In his speech at the graduation ceremony, Pool gave out some advice to his classmates and those in the audience looking to change their lives. He recommended they surround themselves with people who live the way they’d like to live. He suggested getting over one’s ego and choosing “progress, not perfection.” And not to give up on miracles.
“Even a deadbeat drug addict like me can get a GED and go on to college,” Pool told the crowd, grinning broadly. “You’re unstoppable.”
The first day
Pool finished his classes at Londer fairly quickly, in just four months. Silvia took more than two years.
It all depends on how much students remember from their previous schooling and how much work they can put in now. The first step at Londer — and any other GED-prep program — is a placement test. It can be an intimidating exam after decades away from school.
“That first day, it was scary,” Silvia said. “They handed me a piece of paper with some math problems and I thought, ‘Oh, my god!’”
But she was excited, too, about the new beginning. And she discovered a love for writing during her classes, even though it had always been a struggle for her before.
Pool realized he’d never properly learned how to read. He had never finished a book until he read the Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous books during his treatment last year.
The newfound skill changed his life. “A lot of these things I failed in high school that were intimidating now made sense,” Pool said. “Now I comprehend what I’m reading.”
“Most students come in at a pretty low reading level,” said Scholl, the center’s manager. “High-level readers may only take one month to get their GED.”
About one-third of all prospective students arrive at Londer with an eighth-grade skill level in the main subjects, Scholl said. The others test below that level.
About half of the students who are at an eighth-grade level initially graduate in the same year they start classes. The rest take a little longer.
The center offers classes at just about any pace, to accommodate the various needs among its population. A lot of students come in for intense classes four days a week. But it’s possible to go less frequently, too.
Nobody denies that it’s hard at first to go back to school.
“My first three months, I had a headache,” Silvia said. “I think it was brain cells trying to reawaken.”
Proud parents
The successes of these GED graduates affect more than one generation. The conference room at the Multnomah building was filled with students in cap and gown holding infants, grandmothers wiping away tears and fathers sitting tall next to sons.
Markos Ellis’ father had traveled up from Texas to watch his son recieve not only a GED certificate but a special award for being among the top three students in his class. Ellis had been referred to the center by his probation officer.
Another student’s voice cracked as she talked about how much her grandmother had wanted to see her graduate. “Now she’s gone,” the woman said quietly. “But it’s very important that the kids are here to see this.”
Studies have shown that children of high school dropouts are less likely to finish school, Scholl said. Anecdotally, it seems that the opposite is true also.
A week after Silvia graduated from the Londer Center, her oldest son, Marcus, called her and asked how he could get his GED. He sat next to his mother on June 6, wearing cap and gown, after taking advantage of last year’s weekend offerings at Londer.
“I’m so proud of my baby,” Silvia said.
Read about the challenges GED schools are facing here.