Yolanda Joseph had a baby when she was 17. She thought she could make it as a single mother. But it got really hard. So she dropped out of high school before her senior year.
She struggled to get by, and had to keep her family moving from one place to another. She had five kids by the time she was 24.
“I had jobs over the years, but they didn’t make ends meet for us,” said Yolanda.
She almost got hired for a good job at a nearby hospital — until they discovered she had no high school diploma.
“Then something popped in my head saying, ‘I need better’,” Yolanda said.
She ran into a friend who was wearing a graduation cap and gown. The friend told her she was graduating from the Excel Center.
So, Yolanda went to the Excel Center where she lived in Memphis, Tennessee, and got some information.
“It was the best thing that I ever could do,” she said.
Yolanda graduated from the Memphis Excel Center with a GPA of 3.4 at the age of 45.
That’s 28 years after she thought she would never have her diploma — 28 hard years struggling without the education she needed to get a good job.
After graduating from the Excel Center, Yolanda enrolled in a community college where she is working toward an associates degree in criminal justice. Her goal is to keep going to school until she earns her masters degree.
The Excel Center in Baltimore will offer people the same hope and opportunity Yolanda found at the Excel Center in Memphis.
There are 16 Excel Centers around the U.S., with the newest one opening in Baltimore this September.
The Excel Center is for anyone who thinks life has passed them by. It’s for anyone who had to drop out of high school early, or had other problems that made getting their diploma impossible when they were a teenager.
Like Yolanda discovered in Memphis, the Excel Center is a place to leave the past behind, to make the most of the present, and to build a new future.
Listen to Yolanda talk about her experience on YouTube.
Learn more about the Baltimore Excel Center today.
