Perseverance pays off for Revere charter school grad

REVERE – Not many high school students get to attend graduation and pick up their diploma at the college they plan to attend, but then Amanda Bright is not your average student.Bright accepted her high school diploma at Bunker Hill Community College Thursday and got a chance to acquaint herself with a place she will become very familiar with over the next several years.The Revere native is enrolled in the Charlestown-based college after finishing three years at the Phoenix Charter Academy, a school for students who struggled to succeed in public high schools.After two years of failing classes in Revere High School, then skipping school for days and getting in trouble, Bright was on the brink of flunking out.”I gave up on myself. I was more into socializing than school,” she said.Her probation officer directed her to Phoenix where 150 students ages 14 to 21 get a second chance at finishing high school and even attending college.”Our mission is to challenge teenagers,” reads the plaque mounted on the wall in the academy’s foyer and the words proved true for Bright. She was one of the first students to enroll in Phoenix when the school opened in 2006. Her first year dealing with teachers, who closely monitored her attendance and work habits, drove her out of the school. As she walked out the door, Phoenix Executive Director Beth Anderson followed her.”I was shocked anyone would care enough,” Bright said. “I came back and said, ‘Let me put my head into it.'”Anderson’s commitment to keeping her in school changed Bright’s attitude. She buckled down and began to enjoy her classes but her spirits plummeted when she failed the math section of the state comprehensive assessment test.”There was a lot of crying and time spent on the phone,” Anderson said.Her teachers refused to give up on her and with the help of her parents, Paul and Diana, she began to excel in her third year, finishing her homework assignments and logging excellent attendance. She finished the year with straight As and spent part of this week writing the speech she delivered to 12 fellow Phoenix graduates during ceremonies at Bunker Hill.”It changed my life. If I didn’t come here, I would have probably dropped out,” Bright said.Phoenix strengthened its focus on college preparation after its initial year in operation and it moved last August into the former site of Our Lady of Grace parochial school. The school will be home to 180 students this fall.Bright said she plans to study X-ray technology at Bunker Hill.