For the last three years about 25 percent of the students who begin high school in the Columbus Public Schools fail to graduate. While some stick around and finish up in five years, others drop out altogether. But there is a place on the citys southside where former students can go when and if they decide to finish their degrees. At the age of 28, Eric Chau was well on his way to a college degree but he said there was something missing from his life. I was always privileged enough to go through public school and go to college. Im just giving back my time to the community, Chau explained.
A college of Pharmacy student at Ohio State, Chau spent the summer volunteering at the Dominican Learning Center on Stewart Avenue.
On this evening, Chau is teaching basic math to 34-year old student Janell Maughmer who said she was inspired by her children to pursue her High School equivalency degree. I went all the way up to twelfth grade, I just didnt pass the math proficiency, she said. Down the hall two women are studying reading, writing and vocabulary with Sister Mary Deane. A former High School English teacher in Michigan, Deane said teaching at the Dominican Learning Center is uniquely rewarding. These people are really desperate to get out of the cycle of poverty or the life of hard knocks. If you show that you care, they really care back. They just want all the help they can get and Im willing to give it, Deane said.
One of Deanes two students is 41 year old Pauline Pearson. A tenth grade drop out, Pearson is now a self-described A student who loves to write poetry.
Up above the stars, deep in the clouds a gate awaits us to the kingdom of Heaven. The streets gold shining as bright as the sun. The moon full and everyone is singing praising God. No worries. Come on down the mountain, she says, daughter of mine where beauty I see. Everybody knows the joy it brings. In due season, God has his reason. The fruit of the spirit brings faith, knowledge and peace. Love is God, Pearson recited. Pearson and math student Janell Maughmer are just two of the 300 students the Center helps prepare for the GED. Founded in 1994, it boasts more than 200 volunteers and a $300,000 annual budget made up largely of donations and grants. Sr. Shawn Fitzpatrick heads the effort. She says the beginning of the school year is a vulnerable time for returning students. I think its theyre getting their own kids into school, Fitzpatrick offered. Fitzpatrick says the Center will use any means possible to get them back. Well send postcards to remind them of the time. Well make phone calls to remind them. And until we just get them back in sync then its okay, she said. Fitzpatrick admits that some of her students have had to overcome substance abuse problems. And many, she says, grapple with poverty and a lack of basic learning skills. Some of them never learned how to study, never learned how to study, never learned how to take any kind of notes or follow up. You know they said they used to go to school put their bookbag at the door and the next day pick it up on the way out and go back in. Weve taught them that you cant do that here cause youre not going to be able to succeed at what your goals are, she said. So far this year ten students have earned their GED despite the obstacles. GED classes are held exclusively at the Dominican Learning Center on Stewart Avenue, Fitzpatrick says students can improve their reading or math skills or non-speakers can take English lessons at twenty-seven library branches across the city.
No matter what they need students will likely encounter tutors like Sister. Mary Ruth Leandres who delight in their success. Of tutoring, Leandres says, theres nothing she would rather do.
Not now. Ive found my niche in life, she said.