Our school has more than graduates. We have successes.

The peer pressure at Central was too great, Isaiah says. Now at the Chamber school, he tries to put distance between himself and the ways of the streets. In his neighborhood, he says, "all my former friends are selling drugs.... They think the only way out is drugs - the only alternative working at McDonald's. Instead of making minimum wage, they'd rather make the $100 an hour." At the Chamber school Isaiah says, the teachers encouraged him more. Now he is working part time at Citizens Bank and looks toward a master's degree in business."

Tony Osorio - Women and Infants

"It made a dramatic change in my life because this school has rules, and they go by them," Tony says. "Here, if you don't come, they call your parents, call them at work. ...This school gives people jobs, if you do good.
I work at Women & Infants (hospital) and I can say it's made me a better person because now I am responsible for myself. I know what I want to do and how to get there. I got accepted at Johnson & Wales, and then I'll go to Roger Williams for criminal justice."

Miguel missed 108 school days out of 180 during his freshman year. His sophomore year he met Counselor Steve Raffa and transferred to the Chamber School. "He was always on my back," Miguel says. "I think, why's this guy worrying about me? And, I start to realize, he really cares. ...To tell you the truth, I was going to be a hustler," he says. Now he works at CPI Financial Services full time and is looking toward a college scholarship and a career in finance.

"I was at Cranston High and I got pregnant. I was 14. I moved out from living with my mother, but I never went to school. So I moved in with my boyfriend in Providence. I have a friend that goes to this school, and she told me that there was a long waiting list and hard to get in, but I got in. My mother-in-law now takes care of the kids. Last year, I was always on the honor roll, but Steve (Raffa) wouldn't get me a job because of the baby. This year, I proved I could have a job and stay on the honor roll. They constantly call my house. Teachers come visit me at home. Not only when I'm bad, but they call my fiance and tell him how good I'm doing. Smaller classes mean they have time for you.
" I want to go into social work with DCYF. Right now I work at a law firm and I'll stay there and work full-time and apply to college."

"To take a predominantly at-risk student body and improve the odds for a majority of them is success indeed."Julia Steiny, Edwatch, Providence Sunday Journal (April 19, 1998).