After becoming pregnant at a young age, Ashlee Roy dropped out of high school and thought her dreams were over. However, in 2015, she graduated from The Excel Center in Lafayette, earning her high school diploma. As a member of student council, she spoke at the graduation ceremony. The following are her words of encouragement to her classmates.

In all her roles — student, wife, mother, daughter and employee — Nidia Cuevas is a BOSS. At age 21, she’s already accomplished several goals that she hadn’t thought she would like owning a home, pursuing a nursing degree and having a marriage and family.

In the face of multiple challenges, Heather Cardenas struggled yet ultimately persevered and excelled. She ran away from home at 17 years old without earning her high school diploma. She endured and eventually escaped an abusive relationship, became a teen mother and faced barriers to earning a livable income and finding stable housing. Today, she works as the administrative assistant for Nurse-Family Partnership Northeast Region.

Derrick Powe has been a valued Goodwill employee for more than six years, beginning as a groundskeeper and now working as a janitor for Goodwill Commercial Services.

Derrick displays an amazingly bright smile that illuminates any room he enters. He is a role model in the workplace. His coworkers and supervisors at the Major General Emmett J. Bean Federal Center [referred to as Building One] have nothing but great things to say about him. The quality inspector at Building One stated, simply, “I am a Derrick fan.”