Students get second chance in millennium - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Students get second chance in millennium

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May 14, 2004

Camilla- Just a year ago, it was hard for any of these students to picture this day.

Especially Tenika Hill.

"Me, I'm just glad to be here because I like to lost my life," Hill said.

Now she's getting it back after her son died in the Camilla tornado last March. All of the students in the Millennium Youth program left high school for one reason or another. But Nathaniel Lowman tracked them down and made them part of the center in Mitchell County.

"The hardest part was to get them comfortable with us to understand we're trying to help them," Lowman said.

They finally did. After months of work, they're sitting where some of them thought they never would. Seven students earned their high school diploma on-line through the state of Maryland, where there is not a high school exit exam like there is in Georgia.

"Some of them got kicked out of high school or can't pass the exam. But that shouldn't stop them from going to college or trying to pursue their education," Lowman said.

Now he's working on opening a Millennium Youth Center in Albany and Sylvester.

"I'm just thanking God because I made it," Hill said.

Made it to a day that once seemed impossible, but now seems like the beginning.

posted at 9:54 p.m. by brannon.stewart@walb.com