“They told me, ‘You’re not going to graduate. You should officially drop out.’ That was scary.”

Anthony had excelled in homeschool until his parents got divorced when he was 17. His mom took a full-time job and enrolled him in public high school—and Anthony immediately knew it wasn’t for him.

He felt he had no choice but to accept his failing grades and sign the drop-out form.

“They told me there was an alternative program that might work for me, but I was still scared. Where do you get in this world without a high school diploma?”

That alternative program turned out to be iGrad, with people ready to show Anthony he could succeed. The Individualized Graduation and Degree Program, or iGrad, is a big partner in our Reconnecting Youth program.

Enrolling in iGrad allowed him to take classes at Green River College. There, he found another game-changer.

“My mom wasn’t good at math, so neither was I,” Anthony explained. “But I had an instructor at Green River College who got me excited about calculus and I discovered I’m actually really good at it.”

He went from math 72 to pre-calculus in just three quarters, setting his sights on medical school. “I’m surrounded by people who are truly invested in helping me. That’s why I’ve done so well. I’m going one step at a time toward a really big goal, but I know I can do it.”
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