Media release from Georgia Northwestern Technical College:
Jayden Allen has been chosen to represent Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC) at the Dinah Culbreath Wayne EAGLE (Exceptional Adult Georgian in Literacy Education) Leadership Institute state competition March 9-11, 2026, at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia.
The Leadership Institute recognizes and honors those students who have demonstrated superior achievement in Adult Education classes and programs. Allen earned her High School Equivalency (HSE) through GNTC’s Adult Education program in June 2025.
“Before I went through the Adult Education program, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life,” Allen, a Lindale resident, said. “I had no aspirations beyond just making enough money to keep my head afloat. Thanks to GNTC’s Adult Education program, I’m now working full-time as a physical therapist aide—something that I can take pride in.”
Allen is currently in the Health Care Assistant certificate program and plans to earn a diploma in Health Information Coding at GNTC.
“I moved a lot when I was growing up, going to 11 different schools by the time I was in 11th grade,” Allen explained. “I was homeschooled for a year because I had thought it would be easier to keep up with the curriculum by digesting it at my own pace. Having ADHD made learning and understanding challenging, so I had to use different methods than the other students to find out what worked best for me.”
Her homeschooling lessons were progressing well but were still difficult; however, she avoided the anxiety she got when speaking up in class, she said. Then her mother had a ruptured brain aneurysm.
“Being 15 and watching my mother, my only parent, that had worked so hard to provide for me, always made sure that I had food in my belly even if it meant she would go hungry and be such a silent pillar of strength suddenly in a hospital with all these tubes and wires coming out of her body was as hard as one could imagine it was,” she said.
“Nothing mattered in that moment,” she explained. “School was the last thing on my mind.”
Allen said she fell behind in school and didn’t finish her sophomore year. She rejoined public school her junior year—now under her aunt and uncle’s care while her mother recovered—and tested at the freshmen level. Believing that she would never catch up, she became depressed and only attended school because of truancy laws.
She left school her senior year after a failed grade. Four years later she tried to earn her HSE, but found the pace of the courses too slow, she explained. She faced additional emotional and financial hurdles before she vowed to overcome her depression and move into a better career the “dead-end job” she had in a school cafeteria, she said.
“I came across a Facebook post about an Accelerated Academy offered at GNTC,” she said. “It felt like a beacon of hope that maybe this time I would be ready. I got my high school equivalency within three days.”
“I was able in three days to earn something that I had thought for six years was unobtainable—all thanks to GNTC, the instructors and the Adult Education program,” she said.
Offered over a weekend, the Accelerated Academy was convenient and free, with food provided.
Karen Craven, Adult Education Distance Education lead instructor, nominated Allen for the EAGLE award. Craven taught her in the Accelerated Academy.
“Jayden demonstrates a high level of integrity, determination and professionalism,” Craven said.
Allen said since completing her HSE, she has gone from constantly doubting her intelligence and self-worth to being confident and proud of herself and her education.
“The Adult Education program made me realize that I was capable of earning my diploma all along,” Allen said. “I just needed the opportunity that GNTC gave me. I imagine there are a lot more people with similar circumstances who feel just like I did and don’t realize what Adult Education can do for them.”
EAGLE is the first statewide program in the nation that recognizes and rewards excellence among students enrolled in Adult Education programs. This student recognition program is designed to create greater awareness of educational opportunities that are available in local communities across the state and to foster greater involvement in lifelong learning pursuits.
The Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) through its Office of Adult Education (OAE) sponsors the annual Dinah Culbreath Wayne Exceptional Adult Georgian in Literacy Education (EAGLE) Leadership Institute.