American Charter, Job Corps walks 35

WASILLA — When American Charter Academy senior Dezeray Ibarra made her way across the stage at Monday night’s graduation ceremony at Wasilla Bible Church, her family and classmates let out a huge cheer.

As a two-time high school drop out, the 19-year-old future licensed nurse is not alone in believing ACA and the Alaska Job Corps Center in Palmer made all the difference in her life.

She was one of 35 ACA/Job Corps graduates who celebrated their achievements and saw a more promising future after previous academic programs failed to do the trick for them.

“In the past, my family was the only one that supported me,” Ibarra said after the ceremony, clutching three large metallic balloons from her family. “When I would try to go back to school before, teachers wouldn’t be very encouraging because they knew I’d already dropped out before. It was like they’d given up on me. When I went to Job Corps for nursing and took the AdvancePath courses at American Charter, it was like a whole new chance.”

She said she’s not stopping with the Certified Nursing Assistant status she’s earned through Job Corps. She plans to continue with her schooling to become a Licensed Practical Nurse, a service that is in high demand in Alaska.

Considered a break-through computer-based academic program being provided for the first time at ACA, Wasilla High, and Valley Pathways, AdvancePath enables students who’ve fallen behind and those striving to get ahead to earn credits in a variety of disciplines on an individualized basis with teacher support and guidance.

Several of the graduates who benefitted from the program sang its praises.

“AdvancePath was a big help to me,” said 18-year-old C.J. Steele, the first child in his family to graduate from high school. “I had loads of absences and through AdvancePath I was able to catch up on my work and graduate on time.”

Throughout the ceremony, teachers and advisers from ACA and Job Corps shared stories and words of inspiration about many of the graduates.

ACA teacher Troy Fowler praised Ben Edwards for his outstanding intellect and outgoing personality. He pointed out that Edwards might have looked familiar in his graduation gown because he’d spent the earlier part of the year wearing a similar outfit as he danced on the corner of the Parks Highway and Pittman Road for Liberty Tax Service.

“He had quite the dancing skills,” Fowler teased Edwards. “But it wasn’t until he came to my history class that I got to see the true personality he has. He’s by far one of the smartest students I’ve ever had. He is by far going places. We might have the first representative from the state of Alaska to be president. He has that ability.”

Edwards, who plans to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a scholarship to possibly study engineering, said after the ceremony that he’s confident he actually could be president of the United States if he really wanted to.

He said he owed a big debt of gratitude to ACA and its staff.

“I liked the individuality of the AdvancePath program, but it’s a little controversial,” said Edwards, who had tried other schools and was home schooled at one point. “I went to public school in the ninth grade and there were like 30 students in my class and the teachers didn’t have any one-on-one time with students. I always work better when I can take my own pace and this school allowed me to actually graduate a few months before everyone else did.”

As Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” blared during a student slideshow at the reception, beaming mother Chris Page made sure she got plenty of shots of her blonde beauty Sierra Buckley with relatives.

“I am so proud of her,” Page said. “She dropped out of school at West High to go to the military academy and that just wasn’t right for her, so I am super proud and very excited that she had this opportunity. I knew she could graduate and I know she’ll do great things.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.