AFG Blog: Becoming a Good Student

On October 29^th, Rosa, a member of AFG’s Prevention program, gave this speech at AFG’s “Dream Warriors” event.

Good evening everybody. My name is Rosa Morales and I am 15 years old. This is my second year in AFG’s after-school program.

Before I started at AFG I didn’t really care about school. I was doing badly in school. My grades were just so bad. My parents always told me to try my best but it was like it entered through one ear and came out the other.

My parents signed me up for AFG because they heard it was going to help me. I come to AFG after school two or three days a week. They pick me up from school and bring me to AFG. During the after-school program, they help me with my homework. We talk about how our day went, our plans for college, and what we want to be in the future. We also help the kids from the middle school group with their homework.

At AFG I feel happy and when I’m with the AFG girls I feel like they’re part of my family. At AFG, we can talk about uncomfortable stuff that I wouldn’t want to talk about with my parents, like STDs.

Some lessons I learned at AFG was that I need to be myself and express myself as who I am and let all the bad out of me. I’m doing better in school. I used to get Cs, Ds, and Fs, and now, just one year later, I’m an A and B student. My parents are so proud of me. Now, I’m a more positive, open-minded person. I’ve learned to have patience. Now I like to see everyone happy—if I see someone who is sad, I’ll go over and talk to them to see if I can do anything to make them happy.

Some plans I have for my future is to keep coming to AFG and spread the word about AFG. AFG has made a change on my life. I plan to graduate from high school and go to college. I want to study nursing and become a pediatric nurse. I like helping kids and I know I can make a change.

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