VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OFFERS SALVATION TO LOST STUDENTS

Tina Rodgers has been working at Dannie Gilder Inc. and credits her GED to landing the job.

After finishing her GED, Ellen Wright was volunteering at the Social Security Administration office to get experience in her chosen field.

Gina Franklin, holding her 9-month-old daughter, Cadie, has completed her GED and will take certified nursing assistant classes.

Twenty years ago, Carla Barker of McClure, Ill., was a victim of circumstances. She fell asleep in a class at Central High School and was told to pick up her books and head to the principal's office.

But today Barker is a success story in the making.

"Being as cocky as I was 20 years ago, I said, `No, you can get my books and take them to the principal's office,'" Barker recalled.

Barker, who was pregnant, didn't return to school, and no one contacted her about going back so she could graduate. "I knew I was short one credit, but I didn't want to return because of the atmosphere in the classroom -- no one believed in me," she said.

Barker and others who will graduate with a General Educational Development diploma from the Adult Basic Education program at Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School Aug. 22, have learned some hard lessons about the importance of an education.

"Not having a GED or a high school diploma has been a heavy load on my back," she said.

After getting married a few years ago, her husband, an English teacher, tempted her with knowledge. "You finally know at a point in your life that you have potential, and you want to see what your potential can get you," she said.

Barker worked through nine months of GED classes at the vocational-technical school before taking the GED test. Now she is a full-time student at Southeast Missouri State University.

Her goal is to teach, and she wants to be an inspiration to her students. "I want to listen to their values, hopes and dreams" as a teacher and "teach them to be positive along the way."

As a junior at Meridian High School in Mounds, Ill., Tina Rodgers was in such a hurry to get out in the real world that she quit school and got a job.

"You're young and think you know it all," Rodgers said. But she said she soon learned "you can't get a good job without an education."

After years of working in a factory, Rodgers began looking for other work. "I couldn't get a job anywhere without getting my GED first," she said.

"My mom's going back to school," she remembers her son saying to his friends at school. Rodgers was equally excited. She took about five months of GED classes and received her test results in January.

"When I was a teen-ager, graduating didn't mean much because it was something I had to do," she said. But earning her GED was important because it was something she wanted to do.

Rodgers continued with the adult business technology class at the vo-tech school. Twenty-six job applications later, she found a clerical job for a trucking company.

She advised those teens who want to hurry life to "take the time and enjoy your teen-age years." She also has learned that "once you're in the job world, you'd better like it because you have to work from then on."

Ellen Wright of Cape Girardeau is trying to be a good role model for her daughter. She should have graduated from Central High School in 1986, but Wright spoke too soon.

Wright, a senior at the time, entered Central's office with a friend. Her friend's parents were moving out of the district and the friend wanted to graduate from Central. School officials said her friend must pay tuition if she didn't live in the district with legal guardians.

That is when Wright spoke up. Wright had been living with her grandparents since she was 5. But they weren't legally her guardians, and Wright was told to stop coming to school unless she began paying tuition.

She felt she had no choice but to quit school and begin working. At age 20, she had a daughter.

Approximately eight years later, a former boss told her she wasn't qualified to manage a gas station. That was the spark she needed to seek her GED. "My daughter deserves more than this," she remembers thinking.

Wright began attending GED classes in December and took the test in March. When she received her test results in the mail, her daughter joked that now they both will have homework.

A newly enrolled freshman at Southeast Missouri State University, Wright plans to study criminal justice. Then she will attend a two-year court reporter's school.

Wright is making sure that her daughter focuses on school. "She will definitely finish," she said. Wright hopes that her daughter, 9, will learn the importance of a high school degree.

Gina Franklin of Cape Girardeau is way ahead of most teen-agers: At 17, she has done far more than expected of her.

"After having the baby, getting my GED was the easy way out," Franklin said. She wanted to go back to Central High School and would have graduated in 1997. But, she said, "Going back after having a baby is totally different, especially with the need to work full time."

Instead, she got her high school equivalency and will attend Southeast Missouri State University in the fall -- one year ahead of her class.

Franklin began attending the GED classes six weeks after giving birth. She stayed in the classes for about three months and took her test in March.

In the spring, Franklin will attend certified nursing assistant classes at the vo-tech school. Then she plans to apply to the licensed practical nursing program. She hopes to become a labor delivery recovery nurse.

"My life has changed a lot." Franklin said of obtaining her GED. "I have better opportunities and can get better jobs now."