The Next Door Celebrates Therapeutic Schooling Program Graduates

With graduation for the class of 2024 approaching this month, we'd like to highlight two outstanding graduates in The Next Door Inc.'s (TNDI) Therapeutic Schooling Program. The students that we serve are youth who are at-risk, disenfranchised, and those who have for years fallen between the cracks of our public education system. With this in mind, the exceptional educational staff at the Klahre House (KH) and Kelly Avenue School (KAS) work tirelessly to find ways to help motivate, heal, support, and grow their students' academic success.

The first student, like many before him, came to Klahre House behind in credits and needed specific courses to graduate. With hard work and a good attitude, he quickly became a student leader at KH and found confidence in his ability to succeed. The school staff fostered his understanding of his capabilities and pushed him through times of struggle while creating a learning environment culture that propelled him to graduation. He is now enrolled at Columbia Gorge Community College in Hood River to continue his educational journey beyond high school.

The second young student enrolled at KAS at the beginning of the year with a clear plan of what he wanted to do. He came to our school because of social-emotional challenges and was missing a lot of school. As this senior navigated a new school, new classroom, different students, and different environment, he began to find his footing and his stride to finish strong. He observed and lived in a classroom culture that was trauma-informed, and cultivated his ability to learn, to focus, and to help him through his own traumas. He started to develop a dream of giving back to his community and decided to pursue a career in social work.

Both students not only graduated, but graduated a whole trimester early in March 2024, an achievement that is not to be taken lightly. It is a difficult task for any student to do, let alone one who has had to overcome so many hurdles. 

"Within the last 5 or almost 6 years as the school administrator, I have witnessed students forgotten by society find their voice and their purpose," reflects Timothy Shampoe, TNDI's School Administrator. "I have seen an educational team shift the paradigm and cultivate a student's connection to their class and classmates, a student’s capabilities to go beyond what they thought they could, and build their confidence to be more than what they thought they were worth."

To learn more about Therapeutic Schooling at The Next Door, please visit nextdoorinc.org/treatment-services.