For Atiya Fisher, family tragedy is what caused her to drop out of high school, but also what motivated her to return to school and continue her education. When she was in ninth grade at Western High School, Atiya’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. “This was a devastating blow to me,” she shares, saying it was hard for her to stay focused in school.
By tenth grade, Atiya dropped out of school due to the stresses at home. She says she then associated with the wrong crowd and began getting into trouble. It wasn’t until she was nineteen that she experienced a wake-up call. When her mother lost her battle to cancer, realized she needed to get her life back on track and return to school.
Atiya enrolled in the National External Diploma Program (NEDP) at SBLC in 2010 and earned her high school diploma a remarkably short eight months later. Graduating, she says “was one of my greatest accomplishments to date.” While at SBLC, she says her favorite moments were the ones she spent with her tutor in the tutoring lab.
Since earning her high school diploma, Atiya has graduated from Baltimore City Community College with her Associates Degree in Surgical Technology and earned her Pharmacy Technician license. In 2011, she received SBLC’s 44th District Scholarship award and used it to help pay for her college education. Currently, she works as a Pharmacy Technician at Cigna Health Spring and as a Surgical Technician at Columbia Surgical Institute.
Are you an SBLC Alumni interested in sharing your story? Let us know what you have been up to since graduation!
