Car Donation in Delaware

There was a time when Ana didn’t have much hope for what her future might hold. Her days were filled with severe bouts of depression, sadness and even thoughts of suicide.

Today, Ana is a new mom, wife and a young woman who sees a positive outlook for herself and her family’s future. She credits Houston Can! Academy Hobby campus for helping change her life and providing the foundation she needed to pursue her dream of becoming a registered nurse. “When I was going to South Houston High School, I was always fighting, hanging out with the wrong crowd and not going to class,” said Ana. “I knew if I stayed there I wasn’t going to be able graduate so I could better my life.” Ana, like many at-risk students who attend Houston Can! Academy, just needed an educational environment to give them the hope to become somebody extraordinary despite the challenges they have faced in their life. “I came here three years ago in the middle of tenth grade,” she explained. “The environment has been really good. There haven’t been any fights and the teachers really care and take time. My favorite classes were reading and parenting, which was very helpful, especially since I was about to have a baby and I learned a lot.” Ana found teacher expectations to be high, but that they were always there for support. “I failed the TAKS once the science part, but I passed all the other subjects on the first try,” she said. “The teachers gave us a lot of extensive tutoring for the test which helped. If you want to come here and take care of your business, you can definitely do it here.” Part of the first graduating class of 2008, Ana didn’t wait to get her diploma before starting to take a few nursing classes at San Jacinto College. She says she is up for the challenge of finishing the four year program while juggling school, work and motherhood duties for her son, Julio Jr. “My sister died of AIDS and I wanted to be a Doctor, but that was going to take too long, explained Ana. “I still wanted to be in the medical field so that I can help others, and nursing is a good way to make a difference.”

The impact Eddie’s mentor made on him stays with him to this day. Now, seven years after graduation, Eddie is an award-winning store manager for AT&T, a company he has stayed with since he graduated. He has traveled abroad, and he has purchased his second home. Because of his experiences at school and help from Texans Can - Cars for Kids and the success he has known since, he wants to give back, being a mentor to young men who, like him, have had to go without the love and guidance of a father.

Beginning my first year of high school through what was supposed to be my junior year, I had no priorities or motivation to go to school. I would give up on myself even though I would always hear from the teachers that I was more than capable of attending college. My grades would be good and my work was always on time, but I would just never find a way to make it to school on time, or at all for that matter. There were high points in my life where I would manage to get a whole semester worth of credits, but then because of petty problems by the next term things would take a turn for the worst.

The last time I dropped out of high school was in November of 2008. I distinctly remember this because it was due to my pregnancy, mainly the morning sickness. I was always throwing up. My whole pregnancy was really hard on me. I was constantly admitted into the hospital because of dehydration, and I had morning sickness up until the time I delivered my daughter.

Once I had my baby, my world changed dramatically. She opened my eyes and because of her I have matured a lot. I started to think about all the things I could do to better my daughter’s life. I began to realize how important higher education was, especially for the well being of my family. I would see my daughter’s father get rejected for jobs because he had no higher than a ninth grade education. Employers that require high school diplomas wouldn’t even give him a chance. For a while he was working at temporary agencies and it was a struggle to get by with the baby and all of our expenses.

I thought about getting a GED and then I thought; Why not go back to Austin Can! Academy, a place that would believe in me even when I had given up on myself, the school where the teachers knew I could become something more than just a high school dropout? I decided to give it a try, and I was able to enroll and start right away.

As soon as I decided to come back to school to give my daughter a better, more financially secure future, my prayers were answered and my daughter’s father was offered a job getting paid pretty well. The only bad thing about the job is it is very hard work. I don’t want him to work that hard for the rest of his life. Since way before I was pregnant my daughter’s dad had been working to get all the things we needed. He has been working extra hard since the baby has been here and now I think it will be good for us if I let him stay home with the baby while I pursue a career. I’m hoping once I graduate I can find a great job with good benefits and I can also start going to college. That will give my daughter and her father a whole lot of time together and it will also give him the opportunity to get his high school diploma or a GED. I am graduating in January 2011, and thanks to my wonderful family, life couldn’t be going any better right now.

Written By: Dametri Hubbard 

All my life I have had to overcome problems that I thought would never happen to me. I was born with asthma, and my little brother was born with Downs Syndrome. We are both black males, poor, and grew up in a bad neighborhood; we were born into problems. To top it off, a problem that I am still trying to overcome is the hard fight my mother put up against cancer for ten years leading to her ultimate death. She died on May 17, 2009. It still affects me every day of my life. 

That next year was one of the hardest years of my life. We were poorer than poor, living in Mason Manor trying to make it while my mama worked two jobs. She was then laid off because her employer felt she was supposed to enjoy her last days with her kids. No one could say the words “yo mama” without catching my fist in their teeth. That caused us to do a lot of moving. It seemed every school I went to there was always that one person who would always say it and make me mad. 

By 8th grade my mom thought it would be a good idea to move us to Pflugerville. It was a rough year, but I barely made it through. That summer my mama spent a lot of time in and out the hospital with medical procedures. It was now the first day of school at Pflugerville High. I made it through, went to football practice and ended up fighting with this guy. Luckily, I wasn’t suspended. The next day at school his homeboy approached me and said, “Let me see you do me like that…!” I didn’t say anything. I just started throwing a flurry of punches until he hit the floor. Then the whole football team jumped me in the main hallway. I injured three guys, so they expelled me and from the school district. The school called my mother out of bed to come get me. This only frazzled her more. 

I had to learn to control myself a little more. We ended up moving to some apartments. I transferred to another high school. The first year and a half there went alright, aside from the fact I was still slowly losing my mother. It was starting to be clearer that she would not be around for as long as I had thought. But I was going to school and taking care of business, the most important thing. Soon enough, the second semester of my sophomore year I was kicked out of high school for being an alleged gang member. 

That brought me to Austin Can! for a little while. It helped me out at the time by attending the PM session. In the morning I would take care of my mom, go to school from 12 to 4 and go straight back home to take care of her some more. That gave us alot of time to make memories. I finished the school year at Austin Can! with no problem. The following school year I decided to go back to my home high school, worst idea of my life. One day I had noone to call because I had just checked my mom into Seton hospital for her chemotherapy. That was the day I was expelled from AISD for gang relation and failure to ID. 

For two weeks I was out of school and in the hospital with my mother, watching her fade away slowly. Soon after she was shipped to San Antonio to a hospital specializing in cancer. She died in that hospital May 17, 2009. I made a promise to my mother that I would graduate and attend college so I could be rich and take care of her. I graduated from Austin Can! this past spring and kept my promise to my Mom, now I have to work on the second half of the promise.

Having been offered a full athletic scholarship for football, Brian believed he would live his dream of playing at collegiate level, and perhaps even as a professional. That dream, however, ended abruptly due to a serious knee injury. Frustrated, Brian dropped out of high school for awhile. When he decided to go back to school, he knew too much time had passed in order to graduate with his former classmates at his old high school. Not one to give up, he enrolled at Houston Can! Academy Hobby campus to earn a high school diploma. “After I got over my disappointment, I knew I had to do something positive with my life and I needed my education,” Brian explained. “I turned to Houston Can! Academy and loved it! Some of the rules I don’t agree with, but I know they have to have them to keep things in order.” It’s been along time coming, but he is proud to be among the 25 graduating students from the Hobby campus in 2008. “My family is very happy for me and proud that I am graduating high school, especially my Mom,” Brian added. “She is speechless. The day I got my gown and invitations she wanted to cry.” Earning his diploma is not only rewarding for Brian, but is also inspires his younger siblings to do the same, which he knows is very important. “I have two sisters and a brother and they watch everything I do, so I know I have to a good example so they say to themselves, ‘I want to graduate just like Brian did.’” The good-natured, friendly young man says math is one of his favorite subjects because it allows him to brainstorm. He also says the bond between students has been wonderful during his year and half stint at the Can!. Diploma in hand, Brian plans to join the fire department, and has already started working towards earning the 72 required hours to join the volunteer department, and then hopefully get voted into the academy. “I’m looking forward to being in the fire department,” he said. “I love the rush you get when you know that you are helping save lives!”