Part two of two.
High school was not a friendly place to Jenine de Biasio.
"Girls are really mean to each other. That was the biggest one for me. I was always the different one. I just felt attacked all the time," said de Biasio, 19.
So in Grade 9 she dropped out.
"I was getting bullied really bad, so I'm like 'I don't want to do this.' Maybe If I was older and wiser and stronger maybe but I can't right now."
After about a year, she tried distance education and eventually enrolled in Transitional Alternative Program Secondary (TAPS).
But it's her daughter Kaiya who drives her to succeed.
"The biggest thing for me, you can't get a career, you can't go to college without your Dogwood (Diploma) and I have a lot of expensive dreams so I'll need money," she said.
Most of those dreams are tied to the future of her 11-month-old baby.
"I had everything I needed when I was a child, but I want her to have things that I didn't have," de Biasio said. "I'm going to save up for her first car. I'm going to save up for college.
"I want her to have a roof over her head - a safe one."
De Biasio was one of dozens who crossed the stage Thursday at CNC's gymnasium as this year's crop of Centre for Learning Alternative grads.
She said the environment was better for her, especially when she found out she was pregnant and started the Teen Mothers Alternative Program.
"It's nice knowing that you're not the only person that's going through what you're going through."
De Biasio met a lot of people who she connected with and who supported her.
"(It) was daily that somebody goes above and beyond," she said of the teachers. "They're just more flexible with their hours, they're more understanding."
The daycare workers, too, made a difference.
"I learnt a lot from them."
De Biasio also credits her mother for getting her back on track.
"She's helped me through a lot so she kind of just supported me and said 'You can do this,'" remembered de Biasio. "I appreciate everything that my mom did."
Most of de Biasio's goals centre on her daughter's success, but she has dreams of her own too.
"I don't want to go to work every day hating my job. I want to do something I'm passionate about," she said. "I found a few things I'm interested in, I just need to take a year and reflect on it."
