DAYTONA BEACH -- A year ago, Lisa Thomas might have been headed to a police lineup instead of graduation.
But with the help of the Practical Academic Culteral Education Center for Girs, the New Smyrna Beach 18-year-old earned her high school diploma Wednesday to the screams, "We love you, Lisa," from a dozen ballon-carrying family and friends.
It's not that Thomas lacked love or support. She had been an honor student. Her mom, stepdad, grandmother, sister, aunt, and other relatives all were trying to watch out for her.
But Thomas became her own worst enemy, quitting New Smyrna Beach High School and running off to her grandmother's in New York. She had been an honor student, so she didn't have much trouble deceiving her grandmother. She headed toward school, but then went off to party instead.
"I thought I could even things out. If I missed a day, I would 'go tomorrow,' but then I missed a week and would say 'I'll go next week,'" Thomas said before she walked across the state at the Museum of Arts and Sciences with 12 other girls -- all who overcame difficulties and were in danger of dropping out of school.
"I was smoking weed and I thought I was having a good time," Thomas said. "I was hanging around with people who sold drugs."
Then things took a turn for the worse. She failed school completely and thought about selling drugs.
"I thought: 'I'm not going to finish school, and I will have to do something to get money.' And I began thinking I could do that [sell drugs]," she said. "But my mom came and got me and brought me back here."
Thomas said she was too embarrassed to go back to the ninth grade, when she should have been in 11th. That's when her mom told her about PACE, a school that helps girls overcome problems and seek successful futures. The program worked for Thomas.
"It was a disciplined setting -- an environment where they check up on you, make you set goals which you have to achieve," Thomas said. "I did good."
She is planning to enroll in Daytona Beach Community College's nursing program.
Carol Wick, director for PACE, said more than 600 girls have found help during its seven years on Magnolia Avenue in Daytona Beach. Enrollment is at 60, but the school is funded for only 50 girls.
"Money is tight, as always," Wick said. "But we had no cuts in the Legislature, and we are grateful for that."
Thomas' mother, Joyce Amaker of New Smyrna Beach, is grateful for PACE.
"I love that school. It gave her a chance to do what she wanted to do. They brought it out in her," Amaker said.
But Thomas was the most grateful, when she stood at the microphone and gave a speech: "I truly appreciate everything that you have done to help me succeed."
Other graduates include:
