Student Success Story: Christopher
05/31/2024
Learn About Christopher’s Academic Journey For the W!
Sometimes all you need is someone to help you realize your worth to get back on the right path. This is exactly what happened with Christopher. He was going through a tough time when his dad went to jail during the end of his freshman year and his grades were beginning to slip. He began talking to his guidance counsellor for some academic support to get through school, but eventually stopped seeing her too. Little did Christopher know, but one of his toughest moments would present a path for him to achieve some of his greatest feats in High School!
While at one of Christopher’s basketball games, he bumped into his future Career Specialist, Alyssa Strickland after his warm-ups. They began talking about school and the team. During discussing Christopher’s story, Ms. Strickland expressed, “Chris opened right up that he wouldn’t get to play this year over failing grades. He felt shame that he let his dad down who was some bigshot ball player in high school himself. I could tell there was so much more to this story, but I left it where it was and sympathized.” Ms. Strickland continued, “I told him if he wanted it, he had to work for it, but it was still very possible! It was like the lights came on and Chris suddenly realized who I was, “You’re that job lady who helps everyone graduate and get jobs and stuff done, aren’t you?” He hugged me and asked to join my program.”
This turned into one of Christopher’s best ideas as he was able to get back on track. The two of them spent extra time two days a week on schoolwork to make sure that his grades got high enough to play again and graduate. They even began repeating the catchphrase “Just get the W”, which was a callback to his involvement in getting the win in sports. They also focused on skills for Christopher to be able to get into his future career like focusing on soft skill training and general workforce readiness through relating back to teamwork in basketball.
This all came to climax, as Ms. Strickland explained, “When Christopher’s mom came to the school for his first game, we both had tears in our eyes as he took the court with his team! She showed me all the college offers that he has and scholarship notes for academics and basketball. We put in for every scholarship and college his senior year. For the W, Christopher!”
Christopher is now a High School graduate, and we are so excited to hear of all of his achievements both academically and athletically in college! If you, or someone you know sounds similar to Christopher’s story please get in touch with us at the link below to talk to someone about how to JOG program can help you!