2011 Graduation: Glen Burnie Seniors Reflect on High School Years, Look Ahead

As Glen Burnie High seniors look forward to life after high school, they also look back at the path they traveled to get to where they are now.

At , about 520 seniors will walk across the stage at the Equestrian Center in Glen Burnie to receive their diplomas. About 77 percent of those students will go on to a two- or four-year college, said assistant principal David Kauffman.

For some, the road has been straightforward with good grades, an after-school job and participating in extracurricular activities.

For others the road was a little rougher.

From Juvenile Detention to College
Lorenzo Hall has had to overcome a few obstacles to get to where he is today.

During his high school years he not only attended Glen Burnie and Meade high schools, but spent time in the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George’s County as well as a group home for nine months. He started at Glen Burnie in the beginning of his junior year.

“In the middle of 11th grade I [realized] I needed to do better,” Hall said a few days before his high school graduation. “I did it for my nephew [age 3] and my little brother [age 16]. I knew it was up to me to make him a better man that everyone else in their life was.”

The 18-year-old said he always struggled with his temper and had been arrested many times for fighting, most recently during his junior year at Glen Burnie. But he said he hasn’t had any problems since then.

And principal Vickie L. Plitt has seen that change in Hall.

“In his time here I’ve seen a boy turn into a young man,” she said. “He grew up without many positive adult role models in his life, but he still saw how an education can change his path in life.”

Hall said he stopped living with his mother when he was 6 years old and when his father was arrested in 2002 he began living with his grandmother. He spent time living with an aunt before he eventually moved out on his own.

Throughout all of that he said he’s always gotten good grades.

“He’s always been smart,” Plitt said “He pulled himself up almost single-handedly.”

In the fall he plans to attend either Bowie State or Coppin State to study criminal justice and hopefully go on to become a lawyer.

“Unfortunately as a young man he already knows of the difficulty life can present. But he’s already found a way to overcome that through getting good grades and through an education,” Plitt said. “I’m very proud of him. I couldn’t be more proud if he was my own son.”

Hard Work Pays Off
While Jessica Woodson’s path to graduation might not have been as troubled as Hall’s, it doesn’t mean she didn’t work just as hard to get to where she is today.

The 18-year-old worked a full-time job for a government contractor her senior year, attending two classes every other day as a member of the National Honor Society while managing the boys’ varsity basketball team in the winter and playing softball in the spring.

“It was hard to let go of the fun side and work for nine hours out of the day,” she said. “I didn’t work hard in high school for nothing. I got good grades to get a good job and go to college and get an even better job. But I had my fair share of fun.”

Woodson said she’s always worked, even if it was just part-time jobs, so she could save money to go to college. In the fall she will attend Salisbury University where she said she might major in computer science based on the work she’s done for the government. She said she will be the first in her family to go to college directly out of high school. Her father has a degree, but Woodson said he attained it through his time with the Air Force.

“I’m not worried about her,” said boys’ basketball coach Mike Rudd. “She’s going to do well … I’ve never had a kid care [about the team] as much as she did.”

But getting a start on her career caused Woodson to miss out on some of the fun things her classmates were able to do.

“I know the hard work paid off, but I wish I could have done more [senior year],” she said. “I wasn’t in school much senior year. I didn’t get to see my friends and it was really hard to keep up playing a sport, going to work and going to school at the same time.”

Having teachers who cared about her at school helped her through her years at Glen Burnie.

“A lot of people told me that it’s tough but that all the hard work will pay off. They pushed me to get this far,” she said. “I want my life to actually go somewhere. I want to be somebody.”