 Youth Building Alternatives is a nationally accredited educational program that works with young men and women who have dropped out of high school. This Learning Works program provides classroom instruction towards a GHD and job site skill training for future employment. Last week they held a graduation ceremony for nine of their newest students and Leslie McVane was there. We're here at the Portland Public Library today for the graduation of the Youth Building Alternatives class at Learning Works. It's a group of young people, there are eight of them, who are going on to jobs and college and they're doing something they never thought they'd do. They're graduating. Well I'm with Ethan Strimling now, Executive Director of Learning Works. Hi, Ethan. Hi, nice to see you. This was an amazing graduation. Now I've been to a few, you've been to many. Tell me what was special about this one. It was really nice and I thought Chelsea's speech was really beautiful, you know, you could tell it was very heartfelt. Sometimes I think young folks are a little nervous about really speaking from their heart and she did a very nice job of talking about what the program meant to her and how her life has really changed and how she's walking a different path, so for me that moment was really the best. We are the kids who found a different path away from regular high school. We are the rebels, the misfits, the troublemakers and we all found a school who accepted us as we are. YBA has taught me that my goals can be fulfilled, that I can accomplish whatever it is my heart is set on. But this wasn't an easy journey for any of us. We all had our own hardships that we had to get past to where we are right now. We had our disagreements, our arguments with the teachers and they never gave up on us. We wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for them. Well, in your speech as well, I want to comment on that because you talked about it, they're inspiring you. Yeah, you know, every day when you walk into that place and oftentimes I try to just stand out front and welcome people as they come in in the morning and it's just a great reminder, it keeps you very grounded in why you do this work. What makes me the most proud about being part of this today is how you break the stereotypes that other present on to you. How you say to those people who told you that you failed, or those people who pushed you out, or those people who told you you would not be a success, today you have said to them, I'm sorry, that's not true. I made a choice in my life to do something different, to not listen to you who was trying to hold me back and tell me what I could be to be something different. And it's very hard to break those stereotypes. And it's very hard to break what it is that others project on to us. But you've done that. And it's an incredible achievement. I'm with Sonny Waterman, the director of YouthBuild at LearningWorks. Hi Sonny. Hi Leslie, how are you? Aren't you proud today? I am extremely proud. I was so, I got chills, I got teary eyed. I thought it was a beautiful graduation. Thank you. And what a great group of kids. They're an amazing group of kids, you know. Like I said, three of them have been working all the way along and to do both is pretty amazing. And the others, you know, they're all ready to be employed. And the one who is not is looking actively. So they're a great group. They have worked really hard. One last thing. What were your thoughts as you heard these kids speaking today? I just think about the courage that they have and the fact that, you know, they feel like they are different, that they're not your normal typical student. Many people call them at risk, but I would say they're more non-traditional learners. They didn't have to be here. This is a choice. It wasn't that someone said to them, get to school. You know, they don't have to go. So I just am amazed every time at the courage that they have in their spirit because it's just inspirational to me. I'm here with newly graduated Chelsea Burnock who gave the graduation speech, which was absolutely wonderful. Tell me what you were thinking when you were getting ready to walk up to the stage today. Don't mess up. Tell me what you're going to do with your future. I want to go to college at Main College of Art here in Portland. I want to do it really bad. I want to do illustration and furniture. I think you're going to have a future at Mecca as an artist. Yes. That's what I have my heart set on. Did learning's works really help give you the skills you need to go forward? Yes, because in regular high school I didn't even think I'd go to college. I thought I was just going to drop out and go to work and do nothing. Then I come here and they're like, well, you can't work in a restaurant your whole life, Chelsea. You need to actually do a job you want to do. So they helped me. They helped me get where I am right now.