Excel Center honors first graduating class

With his mom, sister and family friend sitting proudly in the audience Tuesday evening, Chris Ross walked in the processional of graduates at the Poplar Bluff Excel Center.

Ross was one of eight students who comprised the very first class of graduates to earn their high school diplomas from an Excel Center program in the state of Missouri. Springfield and St. Louis centers will hold commencement later this week.

Ross made the decision to return to school after he found himself unemployed. He says what better way to utilize his time between jobs than going back to school and improving his life. His mom, Ruby Allen, echoed the sentiment. The beaming mom is “so happy” her son made the move to further his education. Allen formed a support team for Ross comprised of his sister, Elois Vincent, and Lisa Wright, a family friend and mother figure. The ladies took on the roles of motivators for Ross.

“We made sure he stuck with it all right,” Ruby Allen added with a grin.

Shelby Hamilton could barely hold back tears as she addressed her fellow graduates and the audience.

Her road to the Excel Center program began in the midst of a rocky relationship with her then boyfriend. Hamilton says on one of her darkest days she was sitting alone in her car and praying to God for help out of her situation when she heard an Excel Center ad on the radio. She saw that radio announcement as a sign and enrolled in the center’s program thereafter.

Hamilton says her main focus became being the “best kind of mother I want to be to my kids.”

As she looks ahead, Hamilton is “really excited to see what the future holds” for her and her family.

MERS Goodwill Industries President and CEO Dave Kutchback was first to the podium to address the graduates and crowd. Kutchback noted he was “thrilled for these students and all they’ve achieved through the Poplar Bluff Excel Center.”

He says the students are “now in a better place to join the workforce and reach success.”

Poplar Bluff R-I Superintendent, Scott Dill told the audience he derived a tremendous “feeling of hope and energy in the room” and attributed the success of the Excel Center to the solid relationship between the community of Poplar Bluff and the administration of the center.

Excel Center Director Blane Keel says in the early development stages of the center he met with Dill to discuss what potential students could expect and need.

Through those combined efforts of MERS Goodwill Industries and the Poplar Bluff community, the Excel Center opened last fall. Keel told the new graduates that because they are the very first Excel Center class, “Each one of you is making history tonight.”