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THE LIFE SKILLS CENTER OF TOLEDO GRADUATE 25 STUDENTS
Community-based charter high schools will grant state-certified High School Diplomas to 25 young men and women December 16, 2003.
TOLEDO, OH - December 12, 2003 - White Hat Management (WHM) today announced that its Life Skills Center of Toledo will hold commencement ceremonies this month to present 25 area students with state-certified high school diplomas.
The Life Skills Center of Toledo will host its commencement at the Lucas County Public Library in the McMaster Center on Tuesday, December 16 at 6:00 p.m. The evening will feature a keynote address by Shenikwa Straford, morning anchor for NBC 24 News in Toledo. A special guest reception following the graduation will be held in the McMaster Center Lobby. The public is invited to attend.
"Our graduates have overcome many obstacles in their lives to achieve their high school diploma on this very special day," Administrator of the Life Skills Center of Toledo, Tom Robey said. "Many of these students have made personal sacrifices to obtain their 21 credits while holding a regular job during their final 90 days in school. It is with great pleasure that the Life Skills Centers' Staff and I recognize and support the graduates and their families as they move on with their lives in pursuit of their dreams."
"On behalf of the Life Skills Center of Toledo Board of Trustees, I send heartfelt congratulations to the men and women graduating in the Fall Class of 2003," President of the Board of Trustees of the Life Skills Center of Toledo, Eric S. Fankhauser said. "It is with great pride that we watch these young men and women receive their high school diplomas. They have taken the initiative to work on and acquire the skills necessary to become productive and responsible citizens of our community. They have made personal commitments to complete the goal of receiving their high school diplomas and to propel themselves into the next step in life. Congratulations!"
The Life Skills Center of Toledo's winter graduates 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 Toledo school, tuition-free Life Skills Centers are also located in Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Elyria, Middletown, Springfield, 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