Bronson K.
Back in 2012, Hanna alum and now staff member Bronson K. was attending middle school in Belmont, and problems in the classroom and at home had just begun to gain momentum. Falling through the cracks is easier when there are hundreds of kids in your grade, failing classes, smoking pot – yet, even though he was failing all his classes, Bronson was soon going to be advanced to the next grade when he made the unfortunate decision to get high before coming to campus. The timing of his immediate suspension made him ineligible to graduate, and his options to complete 8th grade and start high school on time were slim.
“I was not on track to be successful in high school anyway,” he says. “That time in my life leading up to attending Hanna was a succession of calls for help. Who knows what would have happened to me?”
He remembers his first day well – it was February 28, 2013, when he first arrived on campus to get back on track to graduate middle school and then continue on in the fall as a freshman at Hanna High School. Whereas in his previous life, Bronson thought of himself as a poor student, he soon learned that he was actually a great student in a supportive and nurturing environment.
“I was used to being in a classroom with up to 30 other kids,” he says. “If I had a question or needed help, the teacher just might not get to me that week. At Hanna, it was an everyday thing where the teacher could take their time and check in with me. My GPA shot up to 3.6 because I started grasping the lessons and learning. I think many people don’t realize that the curriculum is very similar to what is taught in public high schools. What is different is the way the material is delivered and the support provided.”
Bronson participated in the school’s competitive wrestling and soccer teams and enjoyed the dynamics and bonds that were formed with his classmates. “It was a very good experience,” he said. As a whole, it’s really a brotherhood here, and it always has been. Even today, when we run into each other out in the community, it’s just all love.”
Bronson attended Santa Rosa Junior College and then continued to Sacramento State, where he recently earned his B.A. in Childhood and Adolescent Development with plans to pursue his M.A. in School Counseling next.
“I can’t control what happens to kids at home,” he says, “but I want to be there for kids in the classroom so I can help prevent someone from going down a path they would later regret. “So often, childhood trauma contributes to why kids do the things they do – including myself, and that’s something I didn’t realize until later in life. I want to help prevent those traumas as much as possible, at least in the school system.”
Today, Bronson is a Hanna Center staff member, working as a youth counselor in the Residential Department’s Transitional Foster Age Youth Program, working with youth from ages 16-21 who are emancipating out of the foster care system, or opting in to extend their time in the program to learn critical independent skills to successfully transition into adulthood.
“I can name off the top of my head a handful of fellow alums that really took to heart the lessons and the skills that this place provided,” he says. “And we’re doing just fine in life. For some guys, it takes hitting rock bottom before they finally get it. Then they come back for the alumni barbecues, and they’re like, ‘I’m so grateful for this place.’”
