BY FRANK DROUZAS, Staff Writer
For the MYcroSchool Pinellas Charter High School class of 2017, it was the end of the road but the beginning of a new path in life. Forty young men and women received their diplomas at the school’s graduation ceremony last month held at the SPC Allstate Center.
With its personalized approach, MYcroSchool is a community-based learning program that prepares at-promise students for college, technical schools, the military or the workforce.
“Tonight our hard work paid off,” said class Salutatorian Tatyana Raquel Conway.
For Conway as for some of her classmates, the road to graduation was sometimes a tough one. The graduate explained that her life changed when she had her first son at the age of 17, but that pushed her to work even harder because she loved him so much.
With childcare issues, Conway was able to work past three in the morning and yet still take courses with the schedule that MYcroSchool allowed her.
Conway noted it took “strength and determination” to be both a mother to her sons and a student set on completing her education, and gave due credit to her supportive friends and family.
“I’d like to thank my mother for raising such a strong woman,” she said in conclusion. “She made me realize that failure is not an option.”
