Julian's Story

By the time Julian found out about American YouthWorks, he had already attended three high schools. The first, he says, was one that he liked—a public school where he was a freshman, on the football team, and making good grades. One day, however, he was told that he would have to leave. His family had just moved into a Habitat house further down the street from the home they had been living in, and unfortunately out of the area zoned for his school.

At Julian's new school, another public school in Austin , things were different. “Walking down the hall, I didn't even want to look into the other students' eyes because I didn't want to start a fight.” Even so, one day, a group of students came up to him and told him to take off his jersey. He didn't understand why at the time, but these students found his jersey offensive and jumped him for it. Eventually, Julian switched to a private school. Here, he says, he developed major problems with attendance. “I didn't like going, I felt stupid, and I would miss almost every other day.”

Finally, Julian's cousin, a student at AYW, told him about the school and Julian, now 16 and a junior, decided to try it out. This time, Julian began to feel comfortable again with going to school. He had been shy for years, and says that at AYW, he began to feel confident and became more social. “I developed the skills I needed for class and stopped missing school. For an entire semester I didn't miss a single day. The teachers were nice, not heartless.”

One day while sitting in class, a teacher for AYW noticed that Julian had been working really hard. “He told me that I was so far ahead that he thought I could graduate as a senior. That's when I started thinking and realized I could do it.” Julian continued to work hard and graduated at the end of his junior year, walking the stage with the senior class and finishing up the last bit of his coursework during the summer. He was still 16.

After graduating from AYW, Julian needed a job but didn't want to leave his school. He began talking to an Environmental Corps (E-Corps) crew leader and decided to join the program. “My mom knows I love my job, and I know that I would never quit,” Julian says.

Julian recently was selected along with two other E-Corps members to go on a “spike trip” to College Station for one week, to shadow A&M University students and graduates to learn about college life and possible careers. For now, Julian plans to stay in E-Corps until he finishes taking prerequisite classes at ACC junior college. After that, he says, “I want to go to A&M.”

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