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THE LIFE SKILLS CENTER OF AKRON & THE LIFE SKILLS CENTER OF SUMMIT COUNTY GRADUATE 100 STUDENTS
Community-based charter high schools will grant state-certified High School Diplomas to 100 young men and women December 16, 2003.
AKRON, OH - December 12, 2003 - White Hat
Management (WHM) today announced that its Life Skills Center of Akron
and The Life Skills Center of Summit County will hold a combined
commencement ceremony this month to present 100 area students with
state-certified high school diplomas.
The Life Skills Center of Akron and The Life Skills Center of Summit County will host their commencement at the Akron Civic Theater on Tuesday, December 16, 2003 at 6:00 p.m. The evening will feature a keynote address by retired FBI Agent Don Adams. A reception will follow, and the public is invited to attend.
"I commend our students for realizing their dream--a high school diploma," said Joseph Cole, administrator of the Life Skills Center of Akron and the Life Skills Center of Summit County. "Their determination and perseverance has been a constant inspiration to all of us. We anticipate nothing but continued success for our graduates in all of their future endeavors. They are a testament to the sheer power of a simple idea-- choice."
"Congratulations on your outstanding achievement," said Robert Townsend, president of the nonprofit board of the Life Skills Center of Akron and the Life Skills Center of Summit County. "We hope this will be the beginning of your educational experience, as you continue to expand your opportunities for advancement and a better life."
The winter graduates from the Life Skills Center of Akron and the Life Skills Center of Summit County join students from Life Skills Centers nationwide who will graduate with their high school diplomas this December. They will join the over 2,800 students who have graduated since the first LSC was founded in 1999. In addition to the Akron-area schools, tuition-free Life Skills Centers are also located in Canton, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Elyria, Middletown, Springfield, Toledo, Trumbull County, Warren and Youngstown, Ohio; and in Phoenix, Arizona and Denver, Colorado. They serve more than 7,500 students.
WHM's Life Skills Centers are proving to be one of the nation's most successful programs for helping high school dropouts or at-risk students earn a high school degree...not a GED. The program features a proprietary curriculum that combines academics, life skills preparation and workplace training. Much of the instruction is computer-based, with state-certified teachers acting as facilitators to help students learn at their own pace. Life Skills Centers do not assign grade levels to students. Upon enrollment, each student receives an Individualized Academic and Career Plan, which guides him or her through the curriculum and toward the diploma. The schools provide a safe, secure, positive learning environment.
Akron-based White Hat Management, LLC, is Ohio's largest operator of charter schools and ranks among the premier full-service Educational Management Organizations (EMOs) in the United States dedicated to educating K-12 students. The company, which was founded in 1998 by Akron, Ohio industrialist and education activist David Brennan, operates three types of schools: Life Skills Centers; HOPE Academies, which are community-based charter public schools for kindergarten through eighth grade; and OHDELA Academy, which provides distance learning resources for home schooling. White Hat Management, on behalf of the non-profit boards it serves, currently operates 32 schools, which employ over 1,300 people, educating and supporting nearly 15,000 students.
For more information, visit www.whitehatmgmt.com