AARON TODD
My name is Aaron Todd. I am 21 years old, and I was born and raised in East Harlem; as a fun-loving kid growing up was always pretty easy for me. I lived on the Paladino side of Wagner Projects until I was 11 years old. When I moved to the other side in 2006 things started getting a little rocky for me. One of my childhood best friends lived in my building, which was great at first, but later I found out that he and his friends were gangbangers. Well, money see, monkey do. My friends were banging so I started banging too. I’m not proud of that point in my life, but I am thankful for being able to leave the lifestyle before it was too late.
I started high school September 2008 at the Academy of Environmental Science. My freshman year went perfectly fine, but then I started cutting class my sophomore and junior year. In the middle of my junior year I was informed that I only had 9 credits. I was told that if I wanted to have any chance at graduating on time I would have to transfer to an alternative school. I did exactly that. I transferred to Innovation Diploma Plus High School. Everything was going extremely well. I went from having 9 credits and one regent to earning 40 credits and passing 3 regents.
All of the sudden in 2011 I lost my grandmother to her third battle against cancer the day before Thanksgiving. It hit my family hard; she was the glue and the foundation of my family. It seemed like I was completely giving up on school after her memorial, but I snapped out of it, started going back, and everything was going well again. Despite my efforts to keep up with school, yet another tragic incident occurred that would derail me from getting my education. That summer my mother messed up her knee. The doctor told us she had torn a ligament and needed to have surgery. My mother struggled at home, and I couldn’t leave her home by herself, so I stayed home for about three months to take care of her.
By the time she finally began to heal, the school informed me that I would soon age out, and I would not be able to make up all of the work I had missed. I decided to disenroll myself from school. Before I left school, my guidance counselor gave me a list of GED programs; the first one I noticed was Youth Action YouthBuild. I live close to the program, and I have a friend who attended YouthBuild. I knew that students enrolled in the program earned certifications in construction by the time they graduated, and I figured that YouthBuild would be a great opportunity for me. After I graduate I want to work my way up to becoming a contractor. I’m not too sure if I want to go to college or not, but I’m sure that I’ll be able to figure it out with the help of the program.