Despite having a supportive family, Milan struggled throughout her time in traditional high schools. There were too many distractions in New York’s large classrooms, and she knew that she was not reaching her full potential. At age 16, Milan moved to Durham, where she learned about the Teen Career Academy. Determined to change her path and go to college, Milan took the placement test and enrolled in the program.

After a little more than a year of individualized one-on-one tutoring, Milan passed all five of the GED tests and graduated with a GED diploma on May 28, 2010. At the graduation ceremony, Milan gave the following speech that explained how “how I changed” and “how life changed for me":

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A Rising Star by Milan

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On August 15 of 1991, Milan was born. To everyone she was precious. She never thought the kindergarten graduation was going to be her last graduation. She went to all different types of schools. As years went by, she felt she was too old for high school, and the schools that she went to made her feel like she’s slow; putting her down all the time. She had the courage to stop going to high school and find some other way to graduate. Thanks to her cousin, she went to a successful program called Teen Career Academy (TCA).

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TCA worked with her all the way in every way. She was motivated and anxious to graduate so she can go to college and specialize in computer forensics. During this journey to graduate on time, she also experienced struggles in life, responsibilities in life, how to be independent, and sticking to herself could be the safe best thing. She also achieved most of her accomplishments such as getting jobs, getting her driver’s license, and going to college. She did it all with her first cousin on the side.



Starting out in the ghetto and moving up into a nicer neighborhood, to her it’s just a “stepping stone.” This girl made it from being misunderstood in a lot of ways; trying to do things on her own, even doing the wrongs things just to bring out a message that she wants to go forward to being motivated all the time, looking for challenges to achieve, and still making her way to the top. Shout out to everyone who supported her from past to present (fam, Robyn, Rahmel, Ma, Papi, the Campos, God, and all her fans). 



On May 28 of 2010, a star has risen. Now she is with all the other stars in the sky because the sky is the limit. That star is me.