This teen mom was a dropout. Here’s how a Tri-Cities school changed her future
When Alexas Cabezas was a Pasco High student, she wasn’t concerned with school.
“I was never in classes. I never paid attention,” she said. “I was either the really quiet kid in the back who didn’t do the work or the really social kid in the very front. I was never the type who sat down and did the work.”
After she learned she was pregnant, she continued to drift through life.
She dropped out of school and started to follow her mom across the country. She made stops in North Dakota, then two stops in Texas.
Along the way, she gave birth to her daughter, Katilaya.
As she stayed with her mom, Cabezas knew the vagrant life wasn’t good for her child.
After she returned to the Tri-Cities, she started talking with another teen mom and learned how New Horizons High School in Pasco helped the other young mother get her diploma.
Cabezas wanted to give her daughter a more stable life, and the alternative high school seemed like the perfect option for her.
“I realized I wasn’t anywhere near where I wanted to be,” she said. “I was looking at my daughter and I wanted better for her. I just wanted her to be proud of her mother, to say that her mother wasn’t just a high school dropout or a teen mom.”
She will be able to tell her daughter that she succeeded at getting her diploma when she and other graduates from New Horizons High School get their diplomas Friday.
A place to learn at her own pace
Cabezas had a year of classes to make up when she started classes in the late fall. The task in front of her looked impossible. She had a 1-year-old who was teething and going through growth spurts.
“On the first day, I sat down with the teen parenting teacher. She told me it may look impossible, but if it’s your goal, it’s possible,” Cabezas said. “Nothing is out of reach if you work really hard at it.”
They came up with a game plan for daycare, and they devised schedules. She would start the day at 5 a.m. and get herself and her child ready, drop off the young girl at the Boys and Girls Club daycare and then start classes.
Even as she was going to classes, she held down jobs serving and housekeeping, so she could support her young family. Teachers helped her by providing classwork when she missed lessons, or by giving emotional support when it was needed.
Many of the lessons were focused on practical items like how to balance a checkbook or about parenting.
Her frustration over the daunting task nearly got the better of her during her final test. When she sat down to begin the test, her mind went blank and she couldn’t remember anything. So her teacher sat down with her and reassured her she knew the subject matter when she did the classwork.
“If it wasn’t for her staying after hours and saying, ‘You’ve got this. You’ve done this before. All of your packets were perfect, you just need to do this on a test.’ ... I don’t think I would be here,” Cabezas said.
While Principal Seth Johnson said the teachers are talented, he noted that Cabezas’ determination really is what helped her get to graduation.
“We have incredible teachers and incredible staff here that really go above and beyond to serve students. But in the end of the day, they provide an opportunity,” he said. “It’s up to the students to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Cabezas is already taking the next steps in her education. She plans to start classes at Heritage University’s nursing program this fall, and once she finishes that she wants to get her doctorate degree in nursing.
She’s excited about the future.
“I’m one of those people who wants to know how everything works,” she said. “So when I got pregnant my senior year, it kind of crushed me because I wanted to be able to say, ‘I have my high school diploma.’ ... That was my goal was to tell my daughter that I did it.”