School never really clicked for Christie Barlow until she tried Whitney M. Young Job Corps Center.

But once it finally did, it changed everything.

“I worked as a Cement Mason and I went for my GED,” she said. “When everybody else was doing typing and clerical, I was with the guys doing Cement Mason.”

Before Job Corps, Barlow struggled to find a schooling strategy that worked for her.

“I was going down what you could say was a wrong path,” she said. “I was kicked out of my high school at the age of fifteen…[My mom] sent me to Job Corps as a last resort.”

And at age 18, with several different schools behind her, Barlow finally found a means of education that worked for her.

“I think it was the environment. Everyone was so loving,” she said. “I think it was the structure that I learned there that I didn’t have before.”

Barlow had to leave Job Corps a little early. She learned her father had fallen ill and left seven months into her time as a student, after earning her GED.

But she still had more to learn. And now, she was serious about pursuing her education.

“Before going to Job Corps, school was the last thing on my mind…I just didn’t care for it,” Barlow said. “The day I left, I told my mom I was going to college.”

Barlow thinks her mom was initially skeptical. But there was an underlying drive there that she hadn’t had before.

“I had a desire to learn,” Barlow said.

She graduated after several tries with a degree in communications and IT.

And from there, she has soared. She currently works in cybersecurity and has since also earned a master’s degree and a CISSP certification, which is one of the highest certifications in IT.

“Whitney M. Young was the foundation that pushed me to say, ‘Ok, actually learning is good,’” Barlow said. “‘I think I actually like this school thing. I like this knowledge thing.’ And it’s been going ever since.”