‘No one is ever going to take this from you’: Union celebrates its final class of adult learners

All cheered, most cried and many held their babies close as Union Public Schools graduated its last cohort of adult learners Tuesday night. 

The Union Adult Learning Center will close June 30 after 25 years of free classes for thousands of students pursuing a high school equivalency or learning English as a second language. The center’s final graduation celebrated 250 adults from both programs.   

“I don’t have to look very hard or very far to see my inspiration, you all are seated right in front of me,” UALC Associate Director Jessica McGhee said. “What you all have chosen to do will change the trajectory of the lives of your families.”

Falling birth rates and the state’s private school voucher program caused almost 500 fewer K-12 students to enroll at Union this school year, according to Superintendent John Federline. The loss of funding meant the district had to make cuts. Despite UALC being the only free, comprehensive adult education program in the region — and the second-largest in Oklahoma — it landed on the budget chopping block. 

An alternative has not yet materialized in Tulsa County. 

“This program has meant too much to too many people to gloss over its ending with easy words,” Federline told graduates. “The fact that this program is ending does not diminish one hour of the work you did, or one life that you helped change. That ledger is full, your legacy at Union is permanent.”

One 43-year-old graduate, Michael Harrison, has been working towards his GED since 1997. 

“It was time that an old man like me put the finishing touches on a life well-lived,” Harrison said. 

Harrison became a dad at 14 years old and took up jobs like pipelining and oil rigging, making good money with his back instead of his mind. 

“Now that I’m older and the youth is gone, now it’s time to worry about my body,” he said. “Now I need to step into bigger fields where life is more relaxing.”

Harrison started pursuing his high school equivalency at the University of Kansas, then at San Juan College in New Mexico and later, in Albuquerque. Harrison’s first day of UALC classes was Jan. 13. 

“When I found out we were closing too, I was devastated because I knew I had to graduate now and that rushed me even more,” Harrison said. “It was a 50/50, but I knew I had to get it done.”

Ivy Constable, 18, dropped out of Broken Arrow High School in tenth grade to start working. She heard about UALC online and started twice-a-week GED classes in late October.

“I thought it was a super incredible service, the fact that I was able to get that kind of learning for free,” Constable said. “It was really helpful and I really needed it.”

For many of the program’s ESL students, the center’s closing is more bittersweet.

“In spite of my old years, I had the opportunity to study — listening and learning,” said Sara Aburto, who attended UALC classes for four years. 

She was one of many who the ESL classes touched. 

“I know the impact that this has for them to acclimate into our society,” ESL teacher Stephanie Wilson said. “When you have that eagerness from people who want to learn, now taken from them and nothing else is provided, it’s just, it’s really heartbreaking.”

For their class and others, the big wins came in simple moments. With the help of Wilson and UALC, they could talk with the teachers at their child’s school, return items at the store and go to the doctor without an interpreter. 

“Thank you, thank you for this program,” ESL student Liliana Milanez said during the graduation ceremony. “Now you can understand me. Now I can speak.” 

All center staff were guaranteed a position at the district, if they chose to take one, Federline said in March. Many don’t see a role that quite fits their passion or impact. 

Guidance specialist Ahmad Abdraffur tried not to think about Tuesday as the final graduation, instead focusing on the students crossing the finish line. They owed it to themselves, he said. 

“That is one thing that we always instill since day one — you took the first step and you’re gonna move forward, move forward, move forward,” Abdraffur said. “You’re never going to look back and no one is ever going to take this from you.”

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