PHOENIX — You learn something new every day.
A 79-year-old takes that to heart as he has found a pathway to a lifelong goal he looks to accomplish with the help of The Excel Center.
Everything about The Excel Center Papago Campus is new and everything Miguel Ayala has been learning there – is pretty new to him, too.
“I have more fun with this than anything else,” he said opening his borrowed laptop.
Last month, the 79-year-old started something he had to give up as a grade-schooler in New York; getting his high school diploma.
”I missed a lot,” he said.
When his parents separated as a teenager, he was chosen to start working to help make ends meet for his family. So while his siblings got book smart with diplomas, he learned he had to get street smart. He was able to get a job with Sears where he stayed for the better part of two decades.
He says he would rely on his spouse for certain things, but he always knew not having that high school diploma only gets you so far.
”It didn’t open the doors, it gave you the halfway door, and then it shut it, you couldn’t continue it without some kind of education,” he said.
So, when he moved closer to family in Arizona after his wife passed away, he found The Excel Center. It’s part of Goodwill’s pursuit to end poverty by giving any adult over the age of 18 the opportunity to finish any unfinished high school education for free.
Nearly 700,000 adults in Arizona are without a high school diploma, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those adults tend to make thousands less than those who have that diploma.
“The opportunity to obtain their HS diploma affords them a better life for themselves and their children in multiple ways,” said Sue Sackman, the school director.
For the parents, the Excel Center includes childcare.
For Miguel, he’s more focused on the new ways to solve for X in Algebra.
He plans to spend the next several months getting the education needed for his high school diploma, so he can gain a new level of independence and find his own job and his own place.
”The education will determine what my future will be, because I will have all this knowledge,” said.
You can bet you’ll see Miguel at graduation.
”I’ve got my whole future in front of me,” he said walking from class to class.