Nicole Samora quit Pueblo Central High School when she was 17 and expecting her first child.
“I was a good student, but when I had a daughter, I didn’t want to have anyone with her but me,” she said. That girl, Esperanza, is now 10, and she and Samora’s two other children are all in school.
With the kids out of the house for part of the day, so is Samora, who recently began studying for a high school equivalency diploma at Emily Griffith Technical College in Denver.
The school’s High School Equivalency program provides an educational opportunity for those who didn’t complete high school.
Students range from 18 to 65.
Emily Griffith is the Adult Education provider for Denver Public Schools and provides students with an accelerated eight-week prep class with online instructional support.
Services included tutoring, college/career planning, financial aid seminars and stipends to students that can be spent on child care.
Unlike many equivalency diploma programs, which offer study only online, Emily Griffith provides direct classroom instruction coupled with online curriculum, said Hillary Frances, Dean of Instruction for adult education.“That often makes the difference between passing and not, because they need someone there to guide them through the content,” Frances said. “Doing it at home on your own, can be very challenging.”
For Samora, the program is a first step in her plan to enroll at Metro State University and become a registered nurse.
She is taking math and science, to get the credits she needs to complete high school, and will be finished in December, she said.
Tuition for the program is $174, but grant money is used to help those who can’t afford to pay, Frances said. The funds offset tuition, and other costs, including testing.
Emily Griffith’s testing center has an 82 percent pass rate for the GED, the highest in Colorado.
Luis Carrillo, 34, works for Home Depot preparing online and other orders for pickup and delivery, but is finding time to attend Emily Griffith, and expects to complete the program in June, next year.
Carrillo quit school in the ninth grade because “I got a job at Blackjack Pizza and found that money was more important,” than school, he said.
Now, he said, he is in a serious relationship with a woman and “trying to build something for the future for both of us. It’s a little bit difficult, but at the same time fulfilling. I feel a sense of accomplishment.”
Emily Griffith Technical College
Address: 1860 Lincoln St., Denver 80203
In operation since: 1916
Number of employees: 107 full time, 207 part time
Number served last year: 7,481, 382 GED prep class students last year
Annual budget: $15.9 million
Percentage of funds that go directly to client services: 80 percent