A Catalyst for Positive Change
“I have received guidance from the Metro Achievement Center for the past nine years. I began at Metro as a shy girl in the fourth grade and continued my way through the rest of high school. I am now a freshman at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign.

When I first enrolled at Metro, the idea of college was certainly not a part of my reality. My parents divorced when I was only six years old. I experienced a very difficult transition with a new home, new school and new neighborhood.  I began to live in my grandmother’s home and did not get to see my father as I once did. Although there was positive influence in my home, I was surrounded by the negative environment of my neighborhood. At first I was oblivious to the great amount of gang violence, drug activity, prostitution, and high levels of teen pregnancy in my new neighborhood.  I later understood that what I heard at night was not fireworks but gunshots that later followed with screams of ambulance sirens and police cars. These gunshots and sirens became the dominant sounds of each night, and my lullaby.   I was still too young to understand why this occurred, and grew to see it as normal activity. Thankfully, I was blessed with a wonderful mother who was and is my protector, mentor, guardian and hero. It was she who decided that education was the way to live a better life. With this thought she found Metro, and she went back to school, too.

At Metro, the dedicated staff and volunteers were tireless in their efforts to give me and other inner-city girls hope for a rewarding future. More importantly, they also gave us the academic and character tools to achieve it.  Metro’s programs educated us on a broad list of subjects. In addition to academics, there were weekly guest speakers whom were experts in their fields. There were field trips and even the opportunity to travel abroad through a Metro partnership with AFS. My junior year in high school, I got to be a part of this program and spent the summer in Beijing, China. Metro not only connected me to AFS, but helped me with the application process and found all of the scholarship funds necessary for me to go.  It was truly the best life-changing experience I have ever had and I will never forget it. Thank you again, Metro.

I was also fortunate to work with a number of talented women who volunteered at Metro as tutors and advisors.  They helped motivate me to want to challenge myself and become a better me.   I now want to use my education and the lessons taught to me by Metro to be a catalyst for positive change in my neighborhood.  Thank you again Metro and the Patricia and Dan Jorndt Leadership Award for giving me the opportunity to one day make this dream come true.”