A-B Tech celebrated students who completed the High School Equivalency (HSE) and the first cohort of Project SEARCH, a one-year internship for students with disabilities, ages 18-30, during a ceremony on June 8 in Ferguson Auditorium. There were nine graduates in the first Project SEARCH group.
More than 180 students successfully passed the HSE test at A-B Tech over the past year, including Teresa Pearson, one of the student speakers. She earned her credential and is currently attending A-B Tech to earn her associate degree in Human Services with the goal of becoming a social worker.
She was also named to the dean’s list for the semester. “I was taught at a young age that if anytime I don’t like the way my life is going, I have the power to do something about it,” she said.
Teresa made the decision to return to school after 31 years when her youngest daughter was a sophomore in college. A mother of three, her children never knew she hadn’t completed high school. When Teresa said she was returning to school, they thought she was going to get another certification. “Let me tell you all, I have acquired 21 different certifications without going back to high school. All of them are expired,” she said.
Teresa credits fellowship through recovery that gave her a new path in life. “It took me a long time to get here. I had a lot of stumbling blocks. There were things in my past and I found every reason that I could not to continue. I told my kids I was going to get my GED and I was going to college and I did that in five and a half months. As a recovering addict, never would I have thought that a person of my background would be working for the local government.”
