"The people I hung out with in high school didn’t think about their future,” says Ricardo Rodriguez, who graduated from YouthBuild in June 2009. “They just wanted money to buy things like cars. 

“YouthBuild showed me responsibility,” Ricardo continues. “It taught me about helping others, and I met new people with different goals.” 

Ricardo, who is now 20, attended three different high schools before dropping out in 10th grade. He then held a series of low-paying dead-end jobs. “I knew there was no hope of getting a good job without a GED, but I thought there was no way I could get it.” 

At YouthBuild, he says, “you don’t get lost in the class.” Now just one test away from earning his GED, Ricardo holds a full-time job at Macy’s. His long-term dream is to become a police officer.

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"YouthBuild changed everything for me," says Pholla Sem, who graduated from the program in June 2009.

"It changed the way I look at things," she explains. "I used to criticize everything. YouthBuild helped me become more mature."

Pholla, who dropped out of high school at 15 with a baby to support, now sees a very different future than the one she envisioned just a few years ago.  The 22-year-old is attending Lincoln Technical Institute to become a pharmacy technician.

"The YouthBuild staff push you to do what you need to do," Pholla notes. "There’s no horse playing. The program is 10 months long, but 10 months go by fast."

Although Pholla is not pursuing a career in construction, she liked the work.  "I often drive by the house we built last year, and I’m really proud of myself."

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Mast Carpenter paints an all-too familiar story when he talks about his teen years. "I was in and out of schools, on the streets, getting into trouble with the law and neighborhood gangs," he says.

At 18, with the birth of his daughter, he knew this way of life couldn’t continue. "I told myself, it’s not about me anymore. I had to change."

Still, life wasn’t providing many opportunities for Mast, who had no high school credentials or employable skills.  He held a series of dead-end jobs and even became homeless for a while.

At 21, Mast heard about YouthBuild and entered the program in the fall of 2008. "The staff helped me with life issues and I liked the construction work," he says. "I’ve done a whole 360 and I’m on the right road now. I want to prove to all the people who knew me before that I’m not that kid anymore."

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After spending a year in jail for selling drugs, Ronald Bridges knew he was ready to change his life.  He has certainly done that.

Indeed, last spring Ronald helped represent YouthBuild Providence at a national convention in Washington D.C., where he met numerous dignitaries, including First Lady Michelle Obama.  While there, he and other YouthBuild participants from across the country built the frame of a house on the National Mall for a woman in Texas who had lost her mobile home to Hurricane Dolly.

Ronald graduated from YouthBuild in June 2009 and expects to earn his GED soon and possibly go on to college. "At YouthBuild," he says, "I found out I could learn how to do things I never thought I could do."

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As a student at YouthBuild, Xavier Pineda never went very long without hearing from Tom Lopatosky.  Sometimes it was a phone call, sometimes just an email or text.  Tom, who had signed up for YouthBuild’s volunteer mentoring program, wanted to make sure his 17-year-old mentee had the support, discipline and focus needed to complete the program successfully. 

Just days after the June 2009 graduation, Tom went one step further, offering Xavier a job as a trainee at his painting company, LOPCO. "I was totally surprised," says Xavier. "I really like the work and I’m learning a lot."

Xavier, who dropped out of high school in 10th grade, is now just one test shy of completing his GED. "In high school I didn’t see how anything I was learning or doing was leading to a job or a future," he says. "At YouthBuild I could plan for a better life."

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