BRIGHT FUTURE

Recognizing 2016 graduates who shined in the face

STORY BY RACHEL STONE | PHOTOS BY DANNY FULGENCIO

Living with a painful chronic condition or struggling as a foster child turned teen mom — youth here and everywhere deal with hardships, but few do so while maintaining a strong academic record and emerging into leaders among their peers.

Sherry Bass

Anger controlled Sherry Bass for too much of her life.

The 18-year-old graduates from Dallas Can Academy in Oak Cliff next month, and that overwhelming emotion enveloped her from a young age.

She’s endured abuse, neglect and teen pregnancy, but now she’s on her way to becoming a registered nurse.

Bass’ mother had labeled her “hyper” and so she began giving her daughter marijuana to smoke at age 8. The woman used drugs and often had men in the house.

Desperate for stability, Bass sought out her birth father, a man she’d never met.

“I found him on Facebook, and he said I could come live with him,” she says.

So at 13, she took the bus from Massachusetts to Desoto, Texas.

Things didn’t improve. Her dad was using drugs and alcohol, and he allowed Bass to do the same. He didn’t really want her there. One night, in a cloud of inebriation, he told her he didn’t love her.

By 14, she became a ward of the state in foster care, and life took a hard left turn. Her foster mother showed her love and took her to church. She received mentalhealth therapy, and a counselor spoke to her in a way that resonated: Giving into anger means giving up on yourself, on your own life. If you don’t care about yourself, no one else will.

“I realized I have to be there for myself,” she says. “And I realized God is there for me.”

At Lancaster High School, Bass began to study hard and made good grades. She won the physics award at the end of her 10th-grade year, but by the time she walked across stage to accept it, she was visibly pregnant.

“This girl heckled me. She said I wasn’t going to amount to anything because I was just going to be a welfare mother,” Bass says.

When she first found out she was pregnant, Bass says, “I thought, I’ll just have an abortion, and no one will have to know.”

But that Sunday, her preacher gave a sermon about the prophet Jeremiah, wherein God informs the prophet of his own miraculous powers, “Before I formed

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“As a 15-year mortgage professional, you can count on my expertise and knowledge to help you make the right choice for your new home construction, purchase or refinance you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Bass took that as a sign, and a few months before she turned 18, her son, Jeremiah, was born. Foster parents in Texas are prohibited from housing mothers and their children. But Bass was able to secure a spot at Oak Cliff’s Promise House, which, among other services, offers supportive housing to young women and their children for up to two years. She enrolled in Dallas Can Academy, a couple of blocks away from Promise House.

“It’s more than just a school,” she says. “They take the time to figure out what’s wrong and help you calm down so you can focus on your work.”

Through the school’s accelerated courses, Bass finished quickly. By March of this year, she had completed all the coursework necessary for graduation.

“She’s a very determined young lady, and we’re very proud of her,” says assistant principal Rufus Johnson.

Children raised in foster care are far less likely to graduate from high school than others. According to a 2011 national study from the University of Chicago, foster kids are more likely to be suspended or expelled, repeat a grade or drop out. They also score lower on average on standardized tests.

Bass is an exception. Unlike many, who get frustrated by the extensive paperwork, she figured out how to navigate the bureaucratic red tape to claim benefits for which all foster children are eligible, including free college tuition at state schools.

She is planning to attend Texas Woman’s University to earn a bachelor of science in nursing. She’s already found housing and applied for federally funded childcare in Denton. She’s aware of the state-funded program that will help former foster children pay up to $3,000 in household bills.

Bass says some people have tried to push her toward a lesser nursing degree that would take only about a year to complete, but that’s not good enough for her.

“If you’re going to do it, you might as well go all the way,” she says.

She is in a hurry to get it done. She plans to begin classes in July. Her eyes already are set on college graduation.

“I know I have to go right away because otherwise I will just get a job, and I’ll never go,” she says.