Student successes highlighted at Partner with Pathways event

Students whose lives were enriched by their involvement in Pathways to Success shared their stories at the organization’s fundraising breakfast at Crossroads Community Church in Georgetown April 21.

Sussex Tech grad and former Pathways to Success student Marty Smith said he was raised in poverty with three sisters by a single mother and no male role model.

“I joined Pathways to Success my freshman year of high school not realizing how impactful it would be on my life,” he said.

Smith said he gained a father figure in Jacques Bowe, Pathways to Success coordinator at Sussex Tech. In an after-school program, he said he learned about real-life challenges like dating, finances, mental health and how to be a gentleman.

“All things you would not normally get from school, but are very important and vital to thrive,” he said. 

Smith now works for Pathways as the work experience coordinator.

Haley Timmons, another Sussex Tech grad and former Pathways to Success student, said the program gave her confidence. Just 11 years after graduation, she opened her first hair salon, and she is now a Pathways volunteer.

Pathways students are identified as being at risk of not graduating high school. Students from participating schools Cape Henlopen, Polytech, Sussex Tech, Seaford and Milford high schools enroll in the program and remain under Pathways supervision and guidance until one year after graduation. 

Fay Blake, Pathways to Success executive director, said that children, most of whom are impoverished, put their faith and trust in the program. These students come from 24 pockets of poverty in Sussex County, she said, and face all kinds of atrocities at home. They need stability, she said.

“Whatever we do with the kids that we serve, it has to be consistent,” Blake said. “They live on a slippery slope. Every day, they never know what they’re going to walk into. We never know what they’re walking out of.”

If children can be nurtured to develop a vision and dream, she said, there is no telling what they can accomplish.

“I come from poverty, and I stand as an example of what can happen when you have people believe in the essence of you,” she said. 

Everyone is able to go to school, she said, but that doesn’t mean the playing field is level.

“What equality did not do, we’re hoping that equity will, and that is the formula for Pathways – meeting kids where they are and helping them to be, to learn, to grow and to prosper,” she said.

Donations raised at the annual breakfast are marked to purchase personal care items for teens, healthy food for students facing food insecurity, workforce essentials for graduates starting their careers, and school supplies and dormitory essentials for those going to college.

Learn more and donate at pathways-2-success.org.