Media Coverage

Star-Ledger
By Julie O'Conner
June 13, 2008

Blazing nontraditional paths to success

Christopher Troescher struggled as the new kid in school after his family moved to Byram.

The transfer in the middle of his sophomore year made him feel as if he had been "dropped right into high school."

So he dropped out.

"I just wasn't happy. I was getting depressed," Troescher recalled. "I wasn't going anywhere with my life at that time."

It was tonsillitis that kept Kate Frenzel out of classes at Randolph High School. With all her absences, she was failing her junior year.

Yet right on schedule, both 18-year-olds took the traditional stroll across a stage to receive diplomas last night as friends and family cheered.

Their graduating class of 52 from the NewBridge 70001 JOBS PLUS program -- which helps stu dents between the ages of 16 and 21 to earn their general-equivalency diplomas in a matter of months -- celebrated just ahead of thousands of high school seniors across the state.

"A lot of the time I get the impression they are not entirely sure of their ability to achieve," Kim Rivera, NewBridge 70001's program manager, told the crowd of more than 100 people gathered for the 7 p.m. ceremony at the Boonton Elks Lodge 1405.

"Never stop believing in your ability to change your life," she told the graduates. She congratulated them for managing "to change their definition from dropout to graduate."

It was a message Troescher already understood.

In September, Troescher is hoping to apply to a college automotive-engineering program for a future career of designing cars.

Frenzel plans to enroll in aviation classes at the County College of Morris to become a commercial airline pilot. She already has sat through several mock interviews at NewBridge, rehearsing details like writing sample thank-you notes.

Regular high schools don't teach much about such life skills, she added.

Had she returned to Randolph High after her illness, "I could have gotten straight A's and I would have failed," Frenzel said. "I found NewBridge and graduated before the rest of my class did."

Her mother had worried about sending her daughter back to school on "a trail of failure."

"I'm so proud of her," Cindy Frenzel said. "She wasn't a bad kid, she wasn't trouble -- she just had a problem at one point. She wants to succeed at everything she does, and they allowed her to."

Robert Parker, executive director of NewBridge Services, the nonprofit parent organization of NewBridge 70001, took note of the parents' pride and their children's efforts.

"How many parents said, 'I thought I would never see my child in a cap and gown'?" he said.

Then he told the graduates: "We give you a hard time, we sus pend you sometimes ... but to night's your night."