Community college program aims to restart academic careers.

RAICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- teens, LaVon Trevelle and Sarah Gold were going nowhere.

At 18, Trevelle left the foster home where she lived and dropped out of Chesterfield County's Meadowbrook High School three months before graduation.

She got married on her 19th birthday and got pregnant last year.

Gold says she got in with the wrong crowd at Hanover County's Lee-Davis High School and was failing 10th grade when she dropped out in 1996.

Gold is 25 now, Trevelle 21. They have changed their lives. They beam when they talk about plans for college and beyond.

Both found the four-month Middle College program at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, designed to help adults earn their General Educational Development certificate and to restart their academic careers.

The program is free and open to adults ages 18 to 24 who did not complete high school.

While working toward their GED, students are enrolled in a one-credit work force course, which teaches them how to create a resume, apply for a job and get through an interview.

Middle College students have access to all the services the community college has to offer, including help with financial aid.

The premise is that being enrolled in the college, even for one course, helps students get a foot in the door for full-time enrollment, said Mary Jo Washko, director of the J. Sargeant Reynolds Middle College program.

In addition to a GED, students can obtain a career-readiness certificate that attests to employment skills.

The Middle College program started in April 2003 at Southside Virginia Community College's John H. Daniel campus in Keysville.

The response was good, and the program expanded to J. Sargeant Reynolds' downtown Richmond campus in June 2003. It remains only at the downtown campus.

Since then, the program has been added at Germanna Community College's Locust Grove campus, Danville Community College and New River Community College in Dublin.

Southside Virginia Community College added the program at its Christianna campus in Alberta and opened a satellite location in South Boston at the Southside Virginia Higher Education Center.

Each program is funded by local money, state community-college funds or state and federal work force development funds.

With a budget of $170,000, the J. Sargeant Reynolds program serves as many as 80 students per year in two semesters, though hundreds apply.

Washko said nearly 500 students applied last year at J. Sargeant Reynolds for the fall and spring semesters combined.

Students who apply are interviewed and chosen based on their academic level-students must have ninth-grade reading and math skills-and their desire to succeed.

"Middle College is a college-recovery program," Washko said. "We try to assist students not only with getting theii GED but also.. exploring career options and accessing community resources" so they can continue with college or find gainful employment.

"Most of our students need to work," Washko said. "But they have to show follow-through. They have to have some sense of awareness of where they are and where they want to be."

Sandra Thompson is director for the Middle College satellite location at the Southside Virginia Higher Education Center in South Boston and the Southside Virginia Community College Keysville campus.

She said that since July 1, 2005, 150 people have enrolled at the two campuses and the satellite location, and at least 83 have earned their GEDs. She expects more as test scores continue to come in.

Thompson said many of her students are single parents who have to find child care so they can attend classes. They all have jobs, which sometimes takes priority over school when you have to feed a family, Thompson said.

In addition, areas like South Boston don't have public transportation, so students have to find ways to gel to class.

"They have a lot of barriers," Thompson said. "But the interest and the number of students who've been successful ... have exceeded my wildest dreams. It just shows that there's a need for this program."

Washko, director of the J. Sargeant Reynolds Middle College program, said that, so far, 124 people have applied for about half of the 80 spots available in the fall semester.

Candidate interviews start soon.

LaVon Trevelle remembers when she was a candidate for Middle College. She was 20 years old and nine months pregnant when she filled out her application. She had seen an ad for Middle College in a local employment guide.

She said she hadn't left high school because of bad grades.

"I never had a problem academically," she said.

"She thought she was grown," said Faye El-Amin, the woman Trevelle calls mom and the driving force behind Trevelle going back to school.

"I gave her a choice," El-Amin said. "'You get a job or go to school."'

The other motivation for Trevelle is her 10-month-old daughter, Ari, "the love of my life," Trevelle said.

"I want her to know that even if you drop out, you go back," Trevelle said.

Sarah Gold, too, remembers when she decided to apply for the Middle College program. She said she knew her life wasn't going where she wanted it to go.

During what would have been her last years of high school, Gold said, she found herself working instead of going to school.

"But it got old after awhile," she said. "I was going down the wrong way before I heard about this program, but it brought me back."

Last month, Trevelle and Gold, who refer to themselves as "double trouble," marched in a graduation ceremony with more than 50 other Middle College students who earned their GEDs.

Gold and Trevelle both have plans for full-time enrollment in the fall at Reynolds.

Trevelle wants to own a computer engineering business someday.

Gold said she hopes to become a nurse.

Then she corrected herself.

"I'm going to be a nurse," she said