SEED School: Harvesting Success
She giggles and grins but can’t stop talking about the tragedies that have filled her life.
Not yet a teenager, Tierra Jones will never forget the horror of watching a woman run down by a car on a West Baltimore street, or finding her beloved pet dog, B.J., hanging dead by its leash from a broken window in her own backyard. “I busted out crying that time,” she said.
About seven years ago, her mother died from an accidental fall in her home.
Tierra grows quiet at the memory and drops her face into her arms. That’s a lot of pain for a little girl to shoulder.
But Jones is resilient. She acts like a typical 12-year-old, who is just beginning to notice boys, likes listening to rapper Lil’ Wayne and will talk as long as anyone will listen. She dreams of becoming an FBI agent, but with the life she’s had, that goal — for the longest time — seemed way out of reach.
Today, however, her life is full of possibilities.
This past summer, Jones was among 80 students admitted to the state’s first public boarding school, the SEED School of Maryland.
The school’s aim is to give disadvantaged students an opportunity to reach their potential, plucking them from the chaos surrounding their lives and placing them — for free — in a safe, supportive environment, where they can grow socially and academically.
Nearly every graduate of the school’s sister campus in Washington, D.C., gains admission to college, and for Jones and many other children, this is the opportunity of a lifetime.
““The SEED School is a godsend for her,” said Alega Penn, 37, the wife of Jones’ cousin Gregory Penn who took Jones in about three months ago. “They’re able to give her an education, where she’ll be nurtured; They’ll give her the love and care she needs.”
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