Salacia Presley let out lots of whoops and cheers during the 2015 Gateway to College Academy graduation—especially when her younger sister Terricia Woodruff crossed the stage. Presley added to the excitement by waving a handmade poster bedazzled with stones and bearing the words “Go Duke, 2015.”

She explained that “Duke” was the nickname given to Woodruff by her late dad, Terry Woodruff.

“My little sister did it,” the 27-year-old Presley said, adding that she herself never graduated from high school.

Woodruff, 18, and the other 22 academy graduates are part of a distinguished group. This year’s commencement marked the end of the Gateway to College Academy, a charter school venture between Georgia Perimeter College and the DeKalb County School District for the past 10 years.  

Gateway targeted high school dropouts and students who didn’t thrive in traditional high schools and offered them a chance to attain a high school diploma and accrue college credit at the same time.

“I feel like we have accomplished our mission, which was to re-channel students into the education pipeline, so I can leave here with a clean heart and mind,” said Dr. Derrick Tennial, Gateway interim director.

Although the program’s charter won’t expire until next summer, Gina Gavin, director of Early College Programs at Georgia Perimeter, says the Gateway charter committee and Georgia Perimeter executive team made the decision last fall that this would be the academy’s final year.

“Due to the difficulty of aligning the high school and college policies with charter school state law, it was determined that the college would not pursue charter renewal,” she said. “The determination to close the academy prior to the end of the current charter was based on low student enrollment.”

Dr. Pamela Moolenaar-Wirsiy delivered the graduation keynote. She spoke pointedly to graduates like Arielle Parland who says she wants to become a veterinarian specializing in treating exotic pets.

“Nothing just happens,” she told them. “You have got to work for it.”

Moolenarr-Wirsiy also handed each graduate a sheet of paper with the question: “If failure was not an option and money was no object, I would…?” One graduate wrote that he’d like to write books and make movies, while another wants to open a gym for youth and young adults.

Alexus Theophile aspires to study nursing at Gordon College. She brought the crowd to tears when giving remarks. “I was on the edge of giving up,” she says. “Then, I found Gateway, and I knew this was the right path.”

Since its start in 2005, Gateway graduates have amassed an average of 23 college credit hours, while working toward getting their high school diplomas. The academy has impacted the lives of more than 955 students, according to the Gateway to College National Network, which states also that Georgia Perimeter was only the fourth Gateway site in the nation 10 years ago.