Success Stories
Jeffrey's Story
I've lived a life of abuse, family separation, drugs, jail, homelessness and prison. A cycle started by choices that I had no control over, yet continued when I did gain what I thought, was control of my life.
Every time one of these choices landed me behind a locked cell door, I would look at the clouds through my window and wonder, what am I doing here? I knew that this isn't what life is supposed to be. I also knew that the answer to my question wouldn't be found in here. The only thing I would find in here was a better way to do the wrong thing and those who depended on me to do just that. As a corrections officer once said to me and the group I came in with, "Come back any time you like, we'll leave the light on for you."
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I wanted to change. Don’t know how, what to do or where to go, but I will change. And when I last looked down from that window, I was standing in front of a office door with Gateway Program posted on the other side of the glass. And to this day, what I love about Cathy, Angelina and the program as a whole is that I wasn’t greeted as what I had done. I was greeted as what I could become. Due to that guidance and support, I now have direction and a goal that I aim to achieve. I will first get an associate’s as a computer tech. Afterwards I will get my associate’s in general studies. With that in hand I’ll transfer to a four year college and get my bachelors in computer information systems. I am also work-study for the Gateway Program. This gives me the opportunity to give back something that was given to me. Hope, opportunity and a chance to succeed. - Jeffrey Cole |
"Courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy lift us above the simple beast and define humanity."
- The Book of Counted Sorrows
