Yadi Mangual

In high school, Yadi Mangual cut class repeatedly, hung out with friends and was held back a few times. She said she didn’t care about school and her teachers weren’t supportive.

Although Yadi said she was doing great in her English class, her teacher once told her, “Why don’t you just drop out and get your GED, you’re already too old to be here.” Yadi, surprised, did just that, but her mother needed to sign a consent form.

After dropping out of high school, Yadi went to two GED programs to further her possibilities. She said she didn’t really learn from them and one of her instructors would cancel the indicator test whenever it was Yadi’s turn.

“They didn’t have faith in me and I started to lose faith in myself,” she said. “People would tell me, you’re so close to 20 you should try an adult GED program.”

Her son’s father told her about The Way To Work (formerly known as VFI).

“This was my last hope,” Yadi said. “When I came here, I was 3 months pregnant.”

Due to the pregnancy, Yadi had high blood pressure and diabetes. She said she had a complicated pregnancy and fainted a lot. Her counselors were concerned with her safety and the welfare of the baby; they asked her if she wanted to consider taking a break until after the baby was born.

“I thought, ‘I’m halfway almost there. I have to finish. I have to do this,” she said. “That’s how motivated I was.”

In fact, there was another pregnant client in Yadi’s class, but she stopped coming to The Way To Work.

The day of her GED exam, Yadi woke up early in the morning. She said that her son was the primary motivation.

“I wanted to give him a better life,” she said. “The entire time he was moving. Everyone would say, ‘Rub the belly for good luck!”

Yadi sang the national anthem during her graduation ceremony, sharing her beautiful voice with the audience. Out of seven siblings, Yadi became one of the three who received their high school diploma or GED, the other two served in the military.

When she received her GED, she said her father’s tears filled his eyes. She said he wanted to frame it.

Yadi was eight months pregnant when she completed The Way To Work. After her baby was born, her workforce managers at The Way To Work placed her in a job at Americare at the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn. Starting as a receptionist, she progressed as a file clerk and then data entry doing medical billing and earning about $12 an hour with benefits.

She took a train and two buses to get there from the Chelsea area of Manhattan every day, while her son’s father took care of him. She has now found a position that is closer to home so she could spend less time traveling and more time with her baby. She is doing data entry at The Media Center and earning $13 an hour with benefits.

She is also enrolled online at Berkley College in the Criminal Justice program and will begin classes this Fall.