Brienne Gordon
2009 SAM State Winner
Cobb County PLC
Creative Expression-High

How CIS and the PLC Has Changed My Life
BY Brienne Gordon

Nothing has ever changed my life as drastically as Communities In Schools (CIS) and the PLC have. One year ago I was at risk of dropping out of school. I attended Kennesaw Mountain for four years prior to transferring to Allatoona High School. It was at Allatoona that I was introduced to the idea of applying for the Cobb County Performance Learning Center. It was the PLC that introduced me to the idea of graduating and continuing my education so that I may have a successful career.
            The picture that I chose to draw represents how school was going for me at conventional high school, and how school is going for me now that I’m enrolled in the PLC. The picture is of two faces looking in opposite directions. Each face is looking up towards the sky; the sky differs on each side. On the left, the face or skull is looking up towards a cloudy, rainy sky. The right sky is still cloudy, but it is beginning to clear and light is breaking through the clouds. Finally at the bottom of the page is the school motto, “Success is The Only Option!”
            Before being accepted to the PLC I was attending Allatoona. I was there for three months, and I went to maybe two classes a week. Before Allatoona, I was at Kennesaw Mountain. There, I skipped class, failed my classes, and got into fights. I failed both my freshmen year and junior year. My grade point average was about 0.333 when I left there. This part of me is represented on the left of the picture with the cloudy sky, the rain falling, and an incomplete person.
            The graduation coach at Allatoona quickly realized that my learning environment did not fit my learning needs. For two months, he pushed me to fill out the application for the CIS Performance Learning Center. Every class I showed up for, he was waiting outside the door, pushing me to fill out the papers. Finally, after I realized that he would not leave me alone about it, I filled it out, turned it in, and then immediately withdrew myself from school.
            About a week later I had my interview and a few days later was accepted. The right half of the picture represents my turn around. I have not yet made a 100% turn around, but I am working on it with help from my school. I now show up to school almost every day. I am passing all of my classes. My grade point average is not where it should be, but it is finally, after four and a half years, above a 1.0 now. Without my graduation coach and CIS/PLC, I would never have thought that graduating would even be a possibility. I am set to graduate early 2010 and I could not be more excited.