Joy Holbert

I went to a lot of different high schools but never finished. I gave up and wanted to just say forget school. EOYDC helped me and made it easier for me.

I went to about five different high schools throughout my four years; from Salinas, to Hayward, to San Leandro, even to Job Corps. At school I never really applied myself. I had the worse attendance. I would go, do my work and then leave. I would come back three to five days later, sometimes even longer. I would make up reasons why I wouldn’t go to school, but later realized that it was my own fault. I was the reason I was failing.

By the time I was in twelfth grade, I just really stopped going because when it was time to graduate, I looked at my transcripts and found that I didn’t have even close to the amount of credits to graduate. I had played and cut school all four years. Five months before graduation, I decided to give up and just stop going altogether. I felt like I had messed up and all my friends would be out of school and I would never be finished.

I decided to take an alternate road. I decided to get my GED certificate since it is equivalent to a diploma. My friend had told me about EOYDC because he was in the GED program. I went to the orientation and started school the next day. EOYDC helped me because I had a teacher to help me prepare for what I needed to know to take the test, and they also helped with transportation to and from the test. I believe that if they weren’t so helpful, I would’ve waited too long and not finished school.

Although I didn’t finish high school, I started the GED program at EOYDC and two months later, I took the test and passed it. Now I am ready to go to college!


Joy Holbert
2009 November Graduate