“I didn’t have a lot of motivation,” said Bennett, who earned her General Education Development (GED) through classes at Metro North ABE in June. “You learn from your mistakes.”
Now she’s enrolled in a class that could lead to her having an internship with Anoka-Hennepin School District in child nutrition while she continues taking classes.
“It would help me be there for my kids, when they’re out of school and I just think it would be a fun opportunity,” she said.
The child nutrition program is just one of dozens of programs ABE offers as it works with eight different school districts across several North Metro counties. Thousands of students went through the locations last year, including more than a thousand in Blaine alone.
“Basically, we need to look at our adults–what time they have what their goals are and we need to figure out the most efficient way to get them to their goal,” said ABE Supervisor Molly Liberto. “I always say our goal is to get people out of ABE.”
Staff help students figure out what they want, including English as a Second Language classes and job-specific classes.
“We are a small program within a large district,” said Liberto. “We have a lot of resources that are available to us, so we can make changes on a dime. The students I have this year are quite a bit different than the students three years ago, because their needs are different. We can actually change our programming to meet those needs.”
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