“I had trouble with authority; I was your typical bad boy,” admitted 19-year-old Michael T. Nguyen of Donegal Township.


That was two years ago when Nguyen dropped out of Donegal High School where he was repeating the 10th grade.


“I was doing nothing,” he said. “A lot of people talked to me, but I wouldn’t listen.”


Then one day it occurred to him: “I am better than that. “This is not why God put me on earth — to be a bum,” he wrote in a winning essay for a memorial scholarship in honor of Jennifer Daugherty, who died in a car crash in September of 2005, a few months after she graduated from the academy.


Nguyen decided to turn his life around and enrolled at Lancaster County Academy, the “school of second chances,” an alternative education program operated by 11 Lancaster County school districts and Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13. Saturday, Nguyen received his high school diploma with 20 others who had quit high school for various reasons — from discipline problems to having to choose to work over staying in school because of money concerns.


Because he finished his credits in the summer, Nguyen is already enrolled at Lehigh Valley College in Allentown where he majors in fashion merchandising.


“I am blown away; I have never cried so much in my life,” said his mother, Sheree Nguyen, who along with his pals, showered him with congratulations after the Saturday afternoon graduation ceremony at Conestoga Valley Middle School.


“I think he is awesome,’’ said Jake Hoffmaster, one of his former classmates at Donegal High School.


Since it was founded in 1993, 500 people have graduated from the school at Park City Center, which one graduate described as “a small place with a big purpose,” according to Diane Tyson, the academy’s program director.


Tyson explained to the audience of 200 friends and family that the academy is not “an easy way out,” but rather a rigorous program that demands stringent academic performance as well as many hours of community service. Students must have at least an 80-percent grade average to graduate, she said.


“They had to go through a lot,’’ she said.


And many went “through a lot” before they entered the school.


Tania Ponce, 21, dropped out of McCaskey High School three years ago when she was in the 11th grade. She wanted to devote more to her job at a movie theater, but she soon realized she made a mistake.


She recalled standing and crying on the sidelines and watching her friends graduate.


“It was heartbreaking,’’ said Ponce, who was one of two students who spoke at the ceremony. “It made me feel like a quitter.”


She and other students praised the faculty for urging them on through what could sometimes be a difficult process.


“Anything is possible if you keep going for it,” said Ponce, of Lancaster, in her speech titled “Struggles.” With diploma in hand, she now plans to pursue her education at Harrisburg Area Community College to become a surgical technician.


The other graduating speaker, Lindsay M. Crowl, 18, of Columbia, also offered inspiration in her speech called “Trials and Tribulations.”


Crowl enrolled in the academy in 2004. She had previously quit Lancaster Catholic High School as a sophomore to take care of her ailing grandmother, who later died of cancer.


“She was the most important person to me and she was proud of me no matter what,” she said of her grandmother.


Crowl said she always knew she wanted to graduate and found the academy to be a perfect fit for her. Crowl, who now works as a waitress, intends to enroll at HACC and later at Millersville University to study psychology. She wants to become a clinical psychologist and work with children who have suffered trauma.


“If they don’t get help they’ll carry it through their lives,” she said.


In a touching presentation, Wendy Boyd, the mother of Jennifer Daugherty, handed to Nguyen a $250 scholarship. Using her daughter’s college fund, she established the five-year scholarship in memory of her daughter, who had planned to study business administration in college.


Daugherty, who was a speaker at her graduation, had emphasized the “second chance” the school offered her and her fellow students, her mother recalled. She had dropped out of Warwick High School just a few credits shy of graduating, but soon after decided to get her diploma.


Boyd quoted her daughter as saying during the ceremony: “We are all here for different reasons, but we all share that common bond — that we came back to set our lives straight.”


Said Boyd: “I know Jen is smiling in heaven knowing her college fund is being used for another student to pursue his or her education.”


Other members of the graduating class and their sponsoring school districts are: Crystal Gernand Allison, winner of the Perseverance Award, Columbia; Taylor Barnes, Penn Manor; Yeabay Berhanu, Hempfield; Kayla L. Brenner, Penn Manor; Samantha Mae Conrad, IU 13 Adult Education; Lindsay M. Crowl, Columbia; Danielle M. Curcio, Penn Manor; Justin Michael Ebert, Elizabethtown; William S. Fenninger, Conestoga Valley; Kayla M. George, Manheim Township; Aubrey Helton, Columbia; Autumn G. Heyen, Hempfield; Lionel B. James, winner of the Service Award, Columbia; Kory R. Karp, Manheim Central; Kathleen J. Russell, Conestoga Valley; Jared L. Shenigo, Conestoga Valley; Stephanie A. Simms, Conestoga Valley; Alexander R. Soanes, IU 13 Adult Education; and Jacqueline Vigo-Curet, IU 13 Adult Education.

blog comments powered by Disqus