Marvin Ford never finished high school. While getting his education, he started working and stopped treating class as a priority. He dropped out and worked as a licensed paint contractor, which he said he felt was “the only diploma I needed.”
Decades later and retired for seven years, Ford has decided that the time has come to continue his education and get his GED. He has been working with the Camp Verde Adult Reading Program, which operates out of the Camp Verde Community Library.
“Going through life, you realize how important education is,” Ford said. “I wish I had understood that when I was a teenager. I’m very intimidated by people who are educated because I realize that that’s something I didn’t accomplish. As long as it’s not too lateto try I’m going to keep trying.”
Ford is one of the dozens of students who have taken classes through the CVARP. Since 2016, the program has had 23 GED graduates. The program has been operating since 1988 and has a partnership with the Town of Camp Verde to operate out of a pair of side rooms near the entrance to the library building.
In addition to its GED program, the Adult Reading Program provides English as a second language classes to non-native speakers. While most ESL students come from Mexico or other Spanish-speaking countries, the program teaches immigrants from all over. CVARP President Von Hatch said that they were welcoming to all who want to learn, regardless of immigration status, since they feel that no matter where a person came from or how they got here, it benefits both them and the whole community to improve their English.
The program operates out of Camp Verde but students come from all over the Verde Valley and even some from the Prescott side of the county. According to CVARP, 16% of Verde Valley residents do not have a high school diploma or GED. Classes are mostly done online on an individual basis, not in group classrooms. There are three teachers with the program — one teaching beginner ESL, one teaching advanced ESL and a GED math teacher.
“Seeing my students pass their test and seeing them blossom — it does a great deal for their self confidence and self esteem, and that’s terrific,” Glenna Baker, the program’s math teacher, said. Baker retired from work in clinical lab testing, including as a teaching assistant, and has been volunteering for several years with the program.
“She got me through the hard spots,” Ford said of Baker. “She’s been very helpful, and always will. She’s always there when I need help. I’m very grateful for the help of her. It’s been a wonderful experience.”
Though CVARP used to receive funding from the state of Arizona, it stopped funding programs that had fewer than 100 students in 2017. Since state require- ments on features, such as class length, sometimes made it difficult for the program to do things how they wanted, CVARP leadership felt that it was overall beneficial to switch to being funded via donations, especially the Arizona tax credit.
“It was mixed,” CVARP Office Manager Kelly Roberts said. “It was sad that we didn’t have the money any more, but we could do it how it was best for us.”
The biggest challenge for the program, more than funding, is making sure that students keep at it. Since so many are students who did not stick with school the first time around, it can often be extra hard to keep them motivated.
“I tell them coming in that this is on them,” Roberts said. “There’s no pressure. There’s no mom and dad telling them to go. There’s no ‘geez, I’ve got to show up.’ We try to encourage them to study a little bit every week, but it’s hard. By not having that class they are on their own.”
“Some people function better with a lot of structure than others,” Hatch said.
But even if it can be difficult for some students, Roberts and Hatch stress how valuable completing the program can be for a student’s life. Roberts pointed to how a GED can mean a difference of $9,000 per year in wages. And 25% of students go from the GED program straight to post-secondary education at Yavapai College or other places of higher learning.
“I love to see people succeed,” Baker said. “A lot of times they’re held back because they don’t have a GED or a high school equivalency. And then they’re able to accomplish that and they can move on. It’s just wonderful to be able to see them do that. To be held back by such a little piece of paper — it’s so important in their lives. And we can help them overcome that.”
