Winter High School Graduation For Dallas Can! Students

Who Beat the Odds to Earn High School Diplomas

WHAT:             Dallas Can! faculty will shake hands and deliver 77 diplomas to students who have overcome much more than the typical Dallas graduating high school senior. Students who were former drop-outs or who were not succeeding in a traditional high school campus will walk across the stage at 10 a.m. on Saturday, January 16 at The Academy of Black Arts and Letters, Inc. to receive their high school diplomas and hold the beginning to more opportunity in their lives. Twenty-two of the students are classified as special education students for whom receiving a diploma is a very special accomplishment.  

                        Twenty-seven of the graduates have been accepted to colleges which is especially impressive because approximately 96% of the students at the campus are coded as “drop outs” and 98% are considered at-risk youth. 

                        Some of the students will be the first in their families to receive a high school diploma. Some will not have families there and have pushed through high school on their own. Most will walk across the stage to hold a diploma that seemed impossible to earn just a few years ago. 

WHO:               Celebrating more than 20 years of serving academically at-risk youth, Texans Can! is a unique network of 10 public schools of choice located in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio. Using Texans Can! three core values –- discipline in private, reward in public; rules without relationships breed rebellion; and behavior is based on need –- more than 4,700 students a year are getting a second chance at life. 

WHEN:             Saturday, January 16, 2010

WHERE:           The Academy of Black Arts and Letters, Inc.

                        650 South Griffin Street
                        Dallas, TX 75202
                        (At the corner of Canton and Akard Streets)

WHY:                The students of Dallas Can! have overcome obstacles to complete their education. Each student is enrolled in the school by choice. They realize the value of returning to high school and working to earn their diplomas. The mission of Dallas Can! is to provide a second chance for at-risk youth and their families to achieve economic independence and hope for a better life through relationship-based education and training.

VISUALS:         Non-traditional students receiving their high-school diplomas. Small, intimate graduating class who will be celebrating the end of a difficult journey for their high school education. Students in blue graduation robes, blue hats being tossed in the air at the end of their commencement ceremonies and a beautifully decorated stage. 

MORE:              For more information, visit www.texanscan.org or call (214) 944-1985.