World Education, Inc.

United States: Dropping Back In with Help from Citizens Bank and World Education

Adam Sennot is a bright, curious, and open-minded 21-year-old college student with two jobs and a growing stack of sports-related articles bearing his byline.

Yet when Adam was 16 years old, he dropped out of high school. Throughout elementary school, Adam bounced in and out of classrooms and schools because he struggled with conventional learning models. Adam's mother even resorted to home schooling for a while. "I was about ten years old. Weekday mornings, we'd have breakfast at a diner. My mom would assign me the Herald every morning, and that's how I developed my reading skills and love of sports writing."

Adam did well with his mother's tutelage and supplemental private instructors, but when it was time for Adam to go to high school, his school troubles resurfaced. At the close of his second year, Adam dropped out of high school, frustrated by the disciplinary approach to learning and alienated by cliques into which he didn't fit. Adam continued working at the supermarket where he's been employed since he was fourteen, but his mother, wanting more for him, persuaded Adam to get his GED. Again, Adam did well outside the traditional classroom, and with his mother's encouragement, went on to complete a post-grad year in the Community Learning Center's Bridge to College Program supported by World Education. The Bridge program worked with Adam on everything from college-level math skills to financial aid and college applications. "Bridge was so different than high school. I was there by choice, not by force, and I was treated like an adult. At the same time, my instructors there spent so much time with me. I couldn't believable how much support I got!"

Adam takes a study break at a café in Harvard Square

By the end of the year, nineteen-year-old Adam had been accepted at Bunker Hill Community College. One month later, Adam's mother died. Adam was alone and unable to afford the apartment they had shared all his life, but the landlord was sympathetic and allowed Adam to stay while he looked for a place that he could afford on his nine-dollar-an-hour job. Many people—at any age—would have fallen apart. Adam didn't. "I consider my mother my guardian angel, both when she was alive and since."

Along with the value of education his mother had instilled in him, Adam's circumspect maturity kept him going. "I realized that life wasn't going to stop with me. I couldn't focus on what had happened to me; I needed to figure out how I was going to deal with it."

This has included persistence and hard work. Adam has blossomed from a high school drop-out into a model college student. He works a second job, tutoring his fellow students in writing. At the end of his first year of college, Adam applied for and was awarded a Citizens Bank scholarship (part of World Education's Citizens Scholars Program). In letters of recommendation, Adam's instructors wrote of Adam's outstanding grades, perfect attendance, and respect for deadlines.

Adam's adherence to deadlines and persistence are earning him an increasing portfolio of published articles. He's written for the West Roxbury Transcript and the Brookline Tab, and has recently started to write articles for Spare Change News, profiling homeless individuals who have worked hard at improving their lives.

Certainly Adam can empathize with stories of working hard to overcome difficulties. Each week, Adam manages two classes, a tutoring job, story assignments, and about 30 hours at the grocery store. Adam's scholarship has already helped him get other paying, more fulfilling jobs. "The scholarship has allowed me to take so many more classes! I took a tutoring seminar and now earn money doing that at school. When I first got the scholarship, I had a total of six credits. Now, two years later, I've got almost 50, and should have my Associates' degree by next spring."

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