Toni attends Michele Clark
High School where she’s been on a GEAR UP student panel, helping younger students understand what it takes to get on track and stay there.

Toni is one of over
4500 students who were mentored
by GEAR UP staff from Fall 2009 to
Summer 2010.

GEAR UP staff mentor students, offering support and guidance.  “I’m in the GEAR UP office every day,” says Toni.

Toni in the GEAR UP office at Michele Clark High School with her mentor, Rhonda Thomas.

“I was fighting with everybody,” says Toni.  Then one day she realized, “I’ve got to get out of here.  So I know what I have to do to leave, to be successful.  So I turned it around.”

“It broke my heart,” admits Toni when she realized why a GPA was so important.  Now she has to work that much harder, and she won’t be eligible for many of the scholarship opportunities that are available to some of her peers. Still, she refuses to give up.  Quite the opposite in fact, she’s been working to steadily pull up her GPA.  She now has all passing grades or better.  “That wasn’t happening before,” she says. High school hasn’t been easy for Toni.  She’s been in foster care and is now a ward of the state.  Her positive attitude and belief in herself keep her going. 

She’s working with her GEAR UP mentor, Ms. Thomas and her high school counselor to find colleges that will work for her.  She says she’s a community person, but she wants to go away to college, where she’ll meet people and make new friends.  Toni can’t wait for graduation.  She wants to get out and move on to her future.   She’s interested in a career in the helping professions.  “As long as I can help people, I’m ok.”