Destiny Searls

 

Destiny Searls was a senior with enough credits to graduate high school and planned to go to the University of Texas at Arlington for Broadcast Journalism.

One day, while Destiny was at her doctor’s office, she said, a high school peer claimed she was attacked by 15 other students. That student, she said, accused her as one of the assailants. Although Destiny said she had a solid alibi, she was suspended from school for 6-months and endured court hearings until her witnesses presented her alibi and the prosecutor dropped her charges. When she returned to school, she was told to take ½ a day of classes to make up for the time lost. Destiny was frustrated and tired; “By that time it was too late,” she said. She stopped going to school.

She found a The Way To Work (formerly known as VFI) postcard in her mail and decided to call.

“Other GED programs don’t offer different tracks like The Way To Work and I was interested in the Medical Administrative Assistant program,” she said.

As a child, Destiny was always interested in the medial field; her grandmother died when she was 6 and in her naïveté she thought she could save her.

She said The Way To Work challenged her; something high school didn’t do.

“The Way To Work staff really prepped me for what is happening now,” she said. “They treat you like you’re working; the way you dress, tardiness, that really helped a lot.”

At a The Way To Work Career and College Fair, Destiny learned more about LaGuardia Community College. A few months after graduating The Way To Work in Fall 2006, she took the initiative and enrolled in LaGuardia’s Liberal Arts program.

Destiny, now 20, is working full time as an Administrative Assistant at Princeton Global Networks, a publishing company where she earns $11.50 an hour, and attends school full time. She expects to have her Associate’s Degree in Spring 2009.

After that, she plans to move to Atlanta. She said she wants to study medicine at Spellman and become an Obstetrician in the future.