More than two dozen local adults celebrated a milestone on Monday and got their high school diploma, years after dropping out of school for some.
“It made me feel like I can do anything,” Bruyana Goldson, one of the graduates, said. “Being able to show people the other side of me. The growth and the changes I’ve made.”
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Action News Jax’s Robert Grant caught up with Goldson at Grounds of GRACE, the Arlington coffee shop where she works. But this job pays her far more than just a check.
The 31-year-old dropped out of high school when she was 17 years old after she lost her mother to cancer.
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“I just lost sight on the things I wanted to do and my dreams. Everything I wanted to accomplish — I let them go,” Goldson said.
She lived in what was once known as Cleveland Arms, the murder capital of Jacksonville. It’s the same community where the organization Sponsored by GRACE started working six years ago.