Project Report
| Jan 22, 2015
Kheyra Makes the Grade
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Kheyra
It was a math test that helped 16-year-old Kheyra King realize the program was working—really working.
Kheyra has been going to the Dawson Boys and Girls Club in Montreal’s Verdun neighbourhood since she was a small child. School has been a struggle for Kheyra, despite the fact she loves to read and writing is her passion.
At the beginning of Grade 10, she joined Rogers Raising the Grade—determined to improve her grades. “In February and March I realized [my grades] were getting better with the help I was getting here, so it was pretty quick,” she remembers.
And she knew all those hours studying at the computer had paid off when she held that math test in her hands.
“I was really, really bad at math,” says Kheyra. “I got a 65 and I was so proud of my 65. It wasn’t a great grade, but for me it was! It was a good feeling.”
It was also a good feeling for Darley Polony, Kheyra’s long-time mentor and Rogers Raising the Grade coordinator.
“She came to me and said, ‘Darley, I passed math.’ And I said, ‘Really?’ It isn’t that I didn’t have faith in her, but she did have trouble with math. It’s in that moment that you realize, ‘Wow, we’re doing something!’
“The fact we’re able to offer Rogers Raising the Grade gives kids the chance to have a place where the focus can be academic,” says Darley, “but we also work at fostering physical and emotional growth. That helps academically and in the kids’ everyday lives.”
The future looks bright for Kheyra.
“I’m hoping to go to Dawson College,” she says proudly. “I have been accepted, but I have to keep my grades up until the end of June. The plan is to go to Dawson College for two years to study social science because I’m not really sure what I want to do yet.”
And the story doesn’t end with Kheyra. Her success is inspiring others at the Dawson Boys and Girls Club Community Centre.
“A few people in the Rogers Raising the Grade program came up to me and said, ‘Wow, congratulations!’ So I tell them how I did it and help them reach their own goals.”
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