I was on a road to nowhere – a high school dropout and single mom, like the two generations before me. Trapped in an abusive relationship.

To protect my son and myself, we fled with nothing but the clothes on our backs. I worked a series of dead-end jobs, and we even found ourselves homeless for a time.

I was desperate by every measure – most of all for a second chance.

That’s when I found myself one day at an orientation session for something called a Goodwill Excel Center, a tuition-free high school for adults like me. An Excel Center had recently opened near me, in Indianapolis.

I’ll admit I was apprehensive. I was now 26 and raising a child alone. Could I finally finish high school? I started to walk out of the room, hoping to slip by unnoticed. That’s when an Excel Center employee stopped me with a simple question: Was I ready to change my life?

The answer was yes.

Finding new purpose and motivation, I earned my diploma in just seven months and finished with a 4.06 GPA and an industry-recognized Pharmacy Technician Certification. I went on to earn a two-year degree from Ivy Tech in 2017, becoming the first in my family to graduate college. For the past six years, I’ve worked as an Excel Center life coach, and am now enrolled at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis’ School of Social Work. I’ll earn my Master’s this spring.

Simply put, the Goodwill Excel Center has changed the entire trajectory of my life and my child’s future.

There are an estimated 720,000 Arizonans who never earned a high school diploma or equivalent. Like I was, they’re often limited to a host of low-wage, limited-opportunity jobs. We can change this.

Goodwill proposes to open as many as 22 Excel Center locations in Arizona over the coming decade. A modest state investment would pay massive investments for the economy and, most of all, the individual students and their families. It is estimated that nearly 4 in 10 Excel Center students would not only finish their diploma, but also go on to complete a 2-or 4-year college education (as I did). Meanwhile, research shows a $12,000 average wage increase annually among Excel Center graduates who go directly into the workforce.

The Excel Center provides students with free childcare, flexible scheduling and accelerated coursework. Most of all, they offer a second chance.

My Excel Center was more than just a place to get my diploma. It was a safe haven – a support system of people who cared for me and believed in me more than I’d ever cared for or believed in myself.

A decade ago, I was a high school dropout. Today, I’m a college graduate with a career I love and a bright future. I want Arizonans facing similar circumstances to have the opportunity I got via the Excel Center.

That’s why I’m urging Arizona legislators to keep my story in mind as they consider bringing the Excel Center to your state.

Everyone who wants a high school diploma deserves a second chance to earn one – and I’m living proof it’s never too late!

Gloria Combs is a graduate of The Excel Center. She lives in Franklin, Indiana.

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Students at Desert Vista High School have a chance to learn and teach a several-thousand-year-old discipline focused on health wellness, and it’s catching their attention.

Amanda Goe, a Desert Vista teacher since 2005, has been the school’s one-and-only yoga instructor for the past seven years. Now, her new Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) course is offering high school students the opportunity to put their yoga knowledge to use out in the world.

“My largest passion is wellness,” Goe said. “So, mental, physical, emotional, taking care of the earth, sustainability.”

Goe said Eastern medicine has a role to play in Western culture, where too often prescription drugs and other resources treat symptoms but not causes.

“The goal is to find the underlying cause and then handle that underlying cause so that you have complete wellness,” she said.

A world-traveler, Goe said the more she learns about the world and the people in it, the better she feels. She first found her lifelong passion for yoga at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA), where she learned about the ancient discipline’s background and history.

Goe started at Desert Vista teaching health classes, but the end of the school’s driver education program made room on the roster for a new one-semester class — Goe suggested introductory yoga, and it “just clicked.”

“It just seemed like the next logical step in growth — personal growth, growth for the school, the students,” Goe said. “The program became so popular that we added advanced yoga. And then, in advanced yoga, we started having teaching units. So the Thunder Tikes, our preschool kids, would come. And the Thunder Buddies, our peers who are in self-contained special education classes would come, and my students would teach them. And seeing what amazing teachers my students were becoming, it seemed like a good and appropriate step.”

Through Goe’s efforts, a YTT track was born at Desert Vista. Goe is certified by the national Yoga Alliance to teach YTT, and students leave the class with certification of their own. The 2018 fall class has 23 students.

“Yoga has honestly transformed my life in that, just by practicing — even if you don’t put that much work into it — you manage your stress better,” Goe said. “You start to see things, handle things differently, manage your energy, your mindfulness in general. Yoga, I would say, is ingrained in every piece of my life.”

The students feel much the same way. Some already have plans to practice and teach yoga in college and beyond, both as a means of income and a relaxing hobby.

“It definitely helps with stress,” said Jessica McDaniel, a junior at Desert Vista and one of Goe’s YTT students.

McDaniel said she used to practice yoga with her great grandmother, who is a yoga instructor, and now she loves starting her day in yoga class, where the YTT students are “like a family.” She said she plans to teach yoga as a side job during college.

Once students complete the 200-hour YTT certification and register with the Yoga Alliance, they will be able to teach at gyms, nursing homes, schools and more.

“I hope to keep the mindfulness that we learn about in class and to just always remember to take some time for myself, and to center myself before I give out to the world and lend my knowledge,” McDaniel said.

Ava Jones, a senior in the YTT class, said she had tried yoga with her sister as a child, but it didn’t last long after she realized she couldn’t reach her toes.

“It’s one of my favorite classes here at DV,” Jones said. “It’s one of my favorite things to do even as a pastime, especially with Ms. Goe. I think she really made this class very lovable, and it’s a very unique class.”

Jones said pranayamas, or breathing techniques, and shavasanas, a form of meditation, help her deal with outside conflicts.

“For me personally, it’s been something that can easily apply in other classes,” Jones said. “If I’m stressed or I don’t know what to do, I have my pranayamas. I have meditation to think on what I should do to help improve myself.”

Mikenzie Hammel, also a senior, said her first experience with yoga was when she took Goe’s introductory yoga course as a freshman. This year, the YTT class was a necessity.

“I made room in my schedule for it my senior year because I loved the way I felt, I loved the mindset I was in when I was doing it, I just felt better over all,” Hammel said. “I love that I’m able to take a leadership role and teach little kids and special needs students, and I think we’re even going to be able to teach the staff here at Desert Vista, and even my fellow classmates. So I love that aspect of it.”

Hammel said yoga helps her focus better in her other classes and extracurricular activities.

“I am in cross country, so the extra stretching and relaxation kind of brings me back to my center,” Hammel said. “And I’m also in choir so the pranayamas, the breathing, helps with lung capacity, so I’m able to sing better as well.”

Hammel said she wants to use the YTT certification to get a job in college so she can spread her yoga knowledge.

“You know, peace and positivity,” Hammel said. “So I feel like, not only will it help me, but I can help others with it as well.”

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