SIATech Long Beach Student of the Month: Lashanda Kent
It is great when students inspire staff and students around them. This month, one of those students is Lashanda Kent. Lashanda began SIATech High School a few months ago. Lashanda was a hard worker then, but it was not so easy to work with her. She was hard to communicate with because of her bad attitude. A few weeks later, Lashanda left on a medical leave.
A few months later, Lashanda came back to SIATech High School in Long Beach. On her first day back, Lashanda was ready to complete her high school classes. She sat by her desk, she focused, and there was no stopping her. Today, Lashanda will become our first high school graduate of the class of February 2010. I sat with Lashanda and we talked about what inspired her motivation and her attitude change. Lashanda began to talk about her past.
Lashanda grew up in a rough neighborhood in Southern California. In her neighborhood, she began to hang out with gangs. She began to tell me that the streets became her home, and they became more important to her than anything. Her school career began to fail; she began to get suspensions and soon became expelled from her previous high school. Her mom began to get worried and she began to take action. Lashanda enrolled in a probation school, but she did not like it because she felt she was not going to get anywhere. Her mom became worried she would leave the probation school, so she called Job Corps and met with some representatives of the program. A few months later, Lashanda was enrolled.
A few weeks into her high school career, Lashanda found out she was pregnant. She decided to leave and come back once her child was older. Many students would have given up after a huge event like a pregnancy, but she did not. Lashanda commented that her son made her see life differently. Her son was the reason she changed. She commented that she realized that the streets were not going to feed and take care of her child. She needed to take action and become successful for her and her child.
To SIATech, Lashanda is the proud winner of two Student of the Month Awards for July 2009. All her teachers congratulated her and they are very proud of her achievements. We know she will be successful in all her future endeavors.
Thank you to Social Studies Teacher Jose Estrada for submitting this story.
