CANTON, Ohio — Graduating from high school is not always a breeze. For many students across Ohio, the pursuit of getting to the finish line is often met with distractions of all sorts that cause students to lose focus.
What You Need To Know
- Terrance Jones serves as Canton City School District’s Graduation Coach
- Jones works with students who are short on credits and not on track to graduate
- He helps students remove barriers that may stop them from graduating, in addition to putting a plan together for after graduation
This is one reason Canton City Schools took an extra step to help its students. That help has come in the form of Graduation Coach Terrance Jones.
Jones, an alumnus of McKinley Senior High School, took on the position at the beginning of this last school year. His job is to help remove barriers for students who are short on credits and not on track to graduate.
He said the biggest challenge is that most students already know the steps they need to take to graduate, but there’s no sense of urgency. That’s in addition to not taking advantage of the opportunities that come before them.
Cevion Smith, 17, is one of those students Jones caught up with during summer school. Smith said he felt Jones was just like a family member and appreciated the fact that takes time out to talk to students.
“It really is different when you got somebody that cares for you. You can tell that they really care for you,” Smith said. “He actually goes physically to show you how to maneuver and the right things to do, so I do appreciate Mr. Terrance for that.”
Although Jones has worked with young people for years, this position took on a whole new meaning for him. Jones found himself in similar shoes when he was in school. Active in school, including serving as class president, Jones admits he got sidetracked his senior year.
His plan was to make money off of putting on Greek letter step shows. Sharing his story with 2023 graduates, Jones told students he missed classes and assignments.
When it came time to take his American Government final exam, he said he lost a few points and ended up with an F.
Flunking the exam and then flunking the class made it so that he could not graduate with his class. Devastated, Jones got up the courage to go watch his classmates walk across the stage after a talk with his grandmother.
“More importantly, I went back to summer school for three weeks and was able to get it done and knock it out of the water and ended up enrolling in Grambling State,” Jones said. “Life went on, but I held on to that disappointment because I know it didn’t have to be.”
Feeling liberated after sharing his personal story, Jones said he intends to use it as another tool to help kids accomplish one of the biggest things in their lives. In the meantime, he hopes students will remember that regardless of what happens in life, it’s important to take advantage of the moments that come before them.
“Even if it’s something that sets you back and you get into a low place or feel low or feel discouraged, you gotta take small steps to keep going…to figure out how do I dig myself out of this or how do I start getting into a better position to feel better and do better,” Jones said.
While it’s summer, Jones said once school starts, he’ll be stepping up his efforts to make sure students tackle their plans for success before it’s too late.
