Meet Keidi

Keidi stepped on stage to deliver the Commencement Address to a packed house the night she became a graduate with the Class of 2017 from The Goodwill Excel Center! Her journey from dropping out of high school to becoming a distinguished graduate took some surprising turns.

When Keidi left high school, she was struggling to learn English as a second language. At the time, there wasn’t much support for students who were struggling to understand coursework in a foreign language. So she quit high school, convinced that she could get by with the education she had already completed. But Keidi was wrong and she regretted leaving almost right away.

Soon, Keidi was married and had a baby on the way so she dedicated herself to being a mom. Years later, after another baby and the unexpected death of her husband, she was left raising two daughters as a single mom. Keidi was working in a local high school as a janitor; she and her daughters struggled to get by every month. All the while, Keidi dreamt of completing the education she had left years earlier.

One day as she was driving home from work, Keidi heard about The Goodwill Excel Center on the radio. She turned to her oldest daughter and promised that if she got accepted, she would go. That promise changed Keidi’s life!

When she began attending Excel, Keidi’s days began at 3:00 am. She prepared her daughters for school, then drove herself to school and attended classes from 8:00 am to noon. She then rushed to her job in the afternoon from 1:00 pm to 9:30 pm, finally arriving home around 10pm at night.

Keidi’s resilience, hard work, and sacrifice finally paid off. After earning her diploma, Keidi was promoted and today she is making $3 more per hour – just as a result of completing her high school education! Keidi strives to achieve even more. She is working towards a position with AISD as a Payroll Specialist and she is already enrolled in Austin Community College – Keidi has set her sights on a career in Accounting!

Keidi says proudly “It’s like I always tell my daughters: I started at zero and I worked hard to make a change, now you are both starting at ten. Hard work pays off.”