WACO, Texas (KXXV) — The Adult Education and Literacy program helps non-traditional local students continue their education or get workforce training.
- The program is grant funded from the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).
- The program services around 1,000 students each year in six counties.
- Students can get their GED, certificates and learn English as a second language (ESL).
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"When you're younger, you don't always appreciate education quite as much as you do when you're older," said AEL Graduate Dianna Wollard.
At 55-years-old, Dianna Wollard got her GED through MCC's Adult Education and Literacy program.
"So this was particularly valuable to me, because I'll actually be able to apply everything that I have relearned."
She graduated last week at the top of her class as salutatorian.
"My husband and I have nine children and they're not all grown, we still have three teenagers, so I don't spend a lot of money on myself," Wollard said.
"I sort of deferred a lot of my education until the kids got older, but this is so accessible and especially new do online classes."
MCC Dean of Workforce and Public Service, Frank Graves, says the AEL graduation ceremony was a very special day.
"This may be some of their first of academic successes they've had, so that success, there are kids in the room watching that," Graves said.
"It sets the stage for their kids to follow them and see that their mom or dad were able to be successful."
The AEL program helps non-traditional students continue their education or get workforce training, relying off grant funding from the Texas Workforce Commission."
Recently they received $8,000 from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.
"With the Dollar General Grant, we were able to buy extra laptop computers, which is going to allow us to go to rural communities, and do intake and enrollment because all of our enrollments are done online."
