YES Program restores student’s pride
Karen Peterson photo
Brandon Hergett
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ARLEE – Brandon Hergett’s life was once what he described as hopeless. At nineteen, he turned it around to become the first to graduate from the Youth Education for Success program, an alternative high school graduation program.
“This has been one of the best years of my life,” he said. “Graduating was a great feeling.”
A troubled past caused him to get sidetracked from his original graduation plans.
“Everything always seemed to be going wrong,” Brandon said. “I took the easy way out and started using. I just checked out. I got in with the wrong crowd and eventually dropped out of school.”
He tried to go back several times.
“I went back and dropped out again,” he said.
Throughout Brandon’s senior year – at the age of seventeen – he was back on track again. He went to school fulltime and also took online classes trying to make up for lost time, but it wasn’t enough.
“I was two credits shy of graduating,” he said. “When they gave me the news, it was a hit on my pride. I thought ‘I give up.’ It was my own fault. It points back to my old actions.”
After failing to get his diploma, he spent two years working construction jobs and getting heavier into drugs.
“I worked in places like Alaska, but I couldn’t get any really good jobs with benefits and things like that,” Brandon said.
He did find opportunities at higher-level positions, but every time he turned in his resume, the blank line under “high school diploma” held him back.
“I tried to bypass it and say I was working on getting it but the big companies really do check,” he said. “I felt hopeless.”
That took another hit on his pride.
“Without the diploma, people stereotype you as a lowlife scum. Between the drugs and no diploma, it was tough,” Brandon said.
Standing in front of the mirror last year, he saw dark circles under bloodshot eyes and it scared him. His physical appearance forced him to look inward, a moment he says triggered him to seek change.
“It freaked me out seeing the person I was becoming,” he said. “I thought there has to be something better than this.”
He immediately went to a computer and started searching for rehabilitation facilities. He called the first one he found.
“The lady on the phone said ‘calm down.’ I said ‘I need help.’”
The next call he made was to his family telling them he was going away for treatment.
“My mom said that phone call was the best gift of her life.”
After completing rehab, Brandon said his grandfather offered him a prize to help keep him focused in the right direction — his grandpa’s hunting rifle.
“He said if I get a diploma, I could have it. Hunting is important to me and to get that from a family member was really special,” Brandon said. “And he knew I could go farther in life if I finished school, and I knew I could find a better job if I graduated.”
Brandon remembered Arlee Principal Jim Taylor telling him he had a diploma waiting if he ever decided to finish.
“I called the principal and he said he had this YES program, so I went and signed up,” he said.
The YES program included a work study class and lessons in personal finance.
“I’m really appreciative of the school,” Brandon said. “The difference when you go back is that no one is holding your hand and making you go to school. You have to look at the prize at the end.”
Now that he’s graduated, Brandon isn’t sure what he’ll do with his new options.
“There is so much life ahead of me it’s hard to say. I could get a job in the oil fields. They wouldn’t let me in before without a diploma. I could save money for college. I’d like to take some counseling classes and help kids going through what I did,” he said.
Brandon’s advice is to focus on the positive, a mindset he says helps him stay clean.
“Instead of looking at the past, look at the future. It’s about mindset. Try to do one thing better, one step at a time,” he said. “It’s not that there isn’t help out there to finish school or rehab. You have to dig deep and find what motivates you. For me, it was my pride and hunting. And I wanted a better job. When all hope is gone, there are still options out there.”
YES program instructor Rhonda Kinney said Brandon officially graduated Feb. 4. The program offers a traditional or alternative diploma, depending on a student’s needs; Brandon graduated with a traditional diploma.
The program began earlier this year after receiving funding from a Title III grant.
“The school is an alternative school within the school. We currently serve 21 students, much higher numbers than we expected,” Kinney said. “Those students still have to follow a lot of the same school policies but the difference is that they have flexibility with their schedules.”
Like Brandon, many of the returning students discovered a need for a diploma.
“Students find they just can’t get those better paying jobs without a diploma,” Kinney said. “We wanted to offer something to help those students get a diploma.”
