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Youth For Tomorrow graduates largest class
Imagine the set of circumstances that must be available for the sounds of hands to clap and voices to whoop after a principal announces 55 percent of his school’s students passed their Standards of Learning tests.A number like that might appall administrators at any given public high school in Northern Virginia.
But at Youth For Tomorrow in Bristow, that simply means more than half of the student body is already on the right path toward getting a second chance at life.
Twenty-four students from the non-denominational, faith-based Youth For Tomorrow in Bristow received their high school diplomas last Thursday, while another four earned GED certificates.
It is the largest graduating class in school history.
The diplomas earned there are just as valid as those issued by other western Prince William high schools like Stonewall Jackson, Brentsville or Battlefield, and come with all the same honors and responsibilities.
Seventeen of the Youth For Tomorrow graduates received college scholarships, including six who earned scholarships to four-year universities. Four others who earned their high school diplomas are joining the U.S. Army.
“I’m overwhelmed that we’re standing-room only,” said Youth For Tomorrow Board of Trustees President Anthony Barbour as he stood on stage inside the school auditorium and looked at the capacity-filled room in front of him.
Two rows of graduates, decked out in white and blue gowns and mortarboards sat in front of the wooden stage. Some graduates bumped into a green fern placed near a set of stairs while picking up awards ranging from academic excellence to the About-Face award, which honors students who best adjusted their attitudes during their time in Bristow.
About 75 percent of the teenagers at YFT, as it is referred to by those learning and living at the 210-acre campus to the north of Linton Hall Road, do not have birth fathers present in their lives and 50 percent are without their mothers.
An award-winning alumna had been sexually abused by her father before enrolling at YFT. One of the ceremony speakers, a graduate named Keith, told of sleeping on the floors of foster homes while moving from house to house for about “12 long years.
“When I finally went to about 10 different homes, I went to YFT,” he said.
Then there was commencement speaker Jason Aubin, an E5 sergeant in the U.S. Army and an Iraq war veteran who is still on active duty.
“Jason is special because he is one of us,” YFT CEO Gary Jones told the audience.
Eleven years ago, Aubin entered the campus, but unlike the 28 students seated before him, he never graduated.
The administration expelled him instead after he assaulted a faculty member.
“I realized I wasn’t really going anywhere,” said Aubin of his time after that experience. He said that at the time he had no faith in God and his friends were either all working dead-end jobs or going to prison.
Just because he was gone from the campus didn’t mean Jones would give up on him though The two spoke on the phone weekly and bonded so much that Aubin, who had been abandoned by his father before his three-to-four-month stay at YFT, called Jones the closest thing to a father he ever had.
“There will be tough times and there will be good times. And you have a choice to make: either you can settle for less or strive for better,” a teary-eyed Aubin told the graduates.
Attitudes like the one Aubin had in 1997 are not atypical at YFT. Some of the teenagers buckle down and get to work, like the Class of 2008 valedictorian, Enita. She graduated with a 3.92 GPA and a scholarship to Virginia Commonwealth University, where she plans to study criminal justice.
“My whole life, I was told that I would never be anyone or be anywhere I want to be,” said Enita during her speech, later adding, “we have all come from hard places and faced difficult situations, but it is up to us to change and shape our futures to what we want [them] to be.”
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