More Students Set to Complete 'Mission to Graduate' Program

A couple of weeks ago, Elise Buster was hired at Villa Monte Vista, a local nursing home, three days after earning her Certified Nursing Assistant certificate. None of this would have been possible without Poway Unified School District’s Mission to Graduate Online Academy.

The Web-based educational program provides an opportunity for students who are behind in credits and/or not currently enrolled in school to earn a high school diploma.

“It’s a great program,” Buster said. “I’ve seen it work for a lot of people.”

Buster was one of several students who graduated from the program in December. About five more students are on track to graduate from the program next month, said Dave MacLeod, the Mission to Graduate Online Learning Lab instructor.

“There’s a long road ahead of them, and they’re not going to make it unless something extra was created,” said MacLeod about the program.

Through the Aventa Online Learning System, students can work on their online coursework at any time, as long as they have access to the Internet. Mission to Graduate offers a distribution program for students who do not have computer access at home. In addition, Abraxas High School and Adult Education provide support services such as MacLeod, a full-time teacher and counselors.

“I love working with the students,” MacLeod said. “Every student is an individual challenge. For whatever reason, something wasn’t making them successful. But here’s another opportunity to get them there.”

Mission to Graduate students have flexible schedules. Full-time online learners are required to come to the lab, which is located at Abraxas, for a minimum of 20 hours a week.

“For a lot of these kids, the reason they dropped out is because they can’t work in the rigid confounds of a traditional school,” MacLeod said. “It’s helpful to have a program that’s flexible and meets many of their needs.”

The Mission to Graduate program was launched in 2009 as a pilot program. The program is funded by community partnerships with organizations and corporations, such as Mission Federal Credit Union.

"It’s been hugely successful because it’s student-centric instead of being teacher-centric," said Tricia Link, the vice president of external affairs and business development at Mission Federal Credit Union. "It’s based on where they’re at in their life and where they’re at in their schedules. It combines the in-class component with the instructor, Dave—who is phenomenal—with the online ability to access 24/7 and catch up with where they’re at in the curriculum."

Since its formation, the program has helped graduate roughly 35 students, MacLeod said. There was a 45 percent decrease in the PUSD dropout rate in the first year of the program, Link added.

“As long as this program goes on, they’re really saving these kids and giving them a solid foundation for a much more successful future,” Link said. “It’s taking kids that, for whatever reason, it wasn’t working for them in the normal school system. Instead of having them be one more dropout statistic, they are now graduating with high school diplomas just like their peers.

"It really runs on a shoestring," she said. "Without people supporting it, it could go away, which would be just a huge loss for those students."

MacLeod said his students are bright. They are behind in credits, he said, because of various circumstances, from family and financial issues to drug and alcohol issues.

“Every kid has a different story,” MacLeod said. “For whatever reason, they just needed an extension or another chance. This was just another safety net that was created for them.”

Buster is very thankful for the “safety net.” With her new job, the 20-year-old and her husband are better able to support their son, Josiah, who was born just a month before she graduated from the Mission to Graduate Online Academy.

“If you want to graduate school, I think that this is a very good way because it’s at your own pace; and at the same time, the teacher is always there,” Buster said.