April Clabourne“I was “running the streets and my moms didn’t have a hold of me,” April Clabourne says. She grew up on the streets of the Tenderloin. She dropped out of school and was put on probation numerous times. But then a probation officer sent April to a group home which, she says, “helped turn me around.” She was released from the group home and taken off probation in June 2006.
Her best friend told her about the Glide Scholars Program, which prepares people who dropped out of school to earn their high school diploma or GED and go on to college. Students receive a stipend as long as they are in good standing.“I went to the program for the money,” April says. She stayed because the stipends helped keep her off the streets and she was succeeding in her quest to graduate.
When April entered the program she was two years behind her grade level. She not only graduated early in January, 2008 but was hired by John Muir Charter School as a teacher’s aide, a position she still holds. “Glide and John Muir walked me through it and held my hand every step of the way,” she says.
April is now a student at City College majoring in Criminal Justice and plans to transfer to a four-year college. As a young woman who grew up in the Tenderloin, April greatly admired Cecil and the work Glide does.
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