It’s never too late to return to school, but opportunities are limited

Leslie Hudson dropped out of high school as a teenager. 

Today Hudson has children of her own — and she doesn’t want them to make the same mistakes she did.

So she decided to set a good example: Last month, she graduated from the Career Training Center at Goodwill Industries in Niceville, Florida.

“It’s so exciting,” Hudson, now 31, told Panama City’s News Herald. “Now that I have a high school diploma, a lot of doors are opened to me.”

Not everyone is so fortunate. Programs like the one offered to Goodwill employees are extremely limited and most states will not permit dropouts over the age of 21 to re-enroll.  

Now Hudson wants to make sure that others aren’t left behind. She hopes to become a social worker and plans to use her experience to help young people make good choices in their town.  

She hopes they can learn from her example. “A lot of days I got frustrated,” Hudson said. “It’s so easy to slip back to what you’re familiar with. … But once I set my mind to it, I got there. I started believing in myself.”