October 7, 2024 | Jeffrey Good
Bethel Acceleration Academies celebrated its most recent class of graduates, young learners who pushed through adversity to write a new chapter for their adult lives.
The grads included Leslie Barnes, whose high school years saw her enduring abusive homes, uninspiring schools and her own struggles with alcoholism. But just when life seemed hopelessly bleak, good fortune came her way.
Today, she’s part of a happy new family — and is a proud high school graduate heading for college to pursue a career in nursing.
“Helping people makes me smile,” says the young woman, who recently turned 21 and who goes by the name Les. “It makes my soul smile.”
It wasn’t so long ago that Les found smiles hard to come by. The youngest of 20 children, she lived in a Philadelphia home rife with conflict and neglect. An older sister who lives in Washington State came to visit and offered Les an escape route.
“She saw how neglected I was and said, ‘You can come live with me.’ ”
At first, Les felt relief, but before long, another kind of darkness fell. “I had escaped one traumatic home to come to another,” she says. Things got so bad that Washington social workers came to investigate.
School wasn’t much better. Beginning in Philadelphia, she had tried online high school but found it to be a lonely and frustrating experience. “I was failing all my classes,” she says. “I didn’t understand and I couldn’t get help.”
She asked herself, “Should I drop out?”
At one point, her sister was hospitalized. When Les went to visit, she met her sister’s hospital roommate, Courtney, and found her to be a warm and loving woman. Eventually, Les moved in with Courtney’s family and, for the first time in years, felt at peace.
“They’re practically my family — not practically, they are,” she says. “I found a family and a community.”
When she told her new family about her struggles in high school, they helped her find her way to Bethel Acceleration Academies (BAA), which works in partnership with Bethel School District to provide a flexible, personalized alternative to traditional high school.
“I told them how important it was to earn my diploma,” Les says. “I didn’t want to give up.”
Walking into the BAA campus, Les admired the quiet, studious atmosphere.
At BAA, she had the flexibility to do schoolwork from home or on campus thanks to the unique hybrid learning model. And, whenever she ran into a challenge, she knew a team of educators was there to help.
“I had never seen school done this way. I always thought school was one way, the same way, everywhere,” says Les. “But this was different. I could do it all when I wanted and how I wanted.”
For Les, coming to campus most days helped her to keep her focus and regain her momentum.
However, her personal challenges — including her family troubles and her own fight to overcome alcohol addiction — came with her. This is where her graduation candidate advocate, Richelle Bono, provided guidance and encouragement no matter what.
“It was really a dark place for me. It was really hard for me to open up, but she was a really safe place,” says Les. “She breathed life into me.”
With such encouragement and her own dedication, Les turned the corner on her addiction, finished her coursework and earned her diploma. Along the way, she learned an important truth.
“Sometimes I have felt really dumb. I’m not dumb; I just learn differently,” she says. Bethel Acceleration Academies “was a breath of fresh air.”
Click here to see images of Les and her fellow grads by BAA Registrar Teresa Drivas.