Special Report
College & Workforce Readiness

What It Took to Get This Teenager Back on Track to Graduate

By Sarah D. Sparks — August 29, 2022 3 min read
Nakaya Domina pictured at her home in Las Vegas, Nev., on Aug. 12, 2022. After dropping out of school during the pandemic, she returned to a credit recovery program, where her "graduation candidate advocate" has helped her stay engaged. She expects to graduate this summer, and will then enter a postsecondary program in digital marketing.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Nakaya Domina had been disengaging from school for years before she left Cimarron-Memorial High School in Las Vegas in 2019.

“I was doing horribly, because I was never in class: Ds and Fs—I think I had one C in a class,” said Domina, 18. “I just was too concerned about making more friends than focusing on my schoolwork. Like, I would go ditch class to go hang out with my friends, or I would just completely blow off all the teachers. I was just really concerned with getting the whole high school experience of the Friday night football games and finding a prom date and all that stuff that you really shouldn’t be worrying about.”

Discipline issues with some of those friends led Domina to leave school completely for six months in the first half of 2019.

Domina started at an academic recovery program in Clark County, Nev., called Acceleration Academy online, just as the rest of the district moved into quarantine in 2020. While she said she liked the flexibility of being online, disconnecting socially made it tough to stay motivated while making up more than 20 credits.

“I have [attention deficit disorder] and I kind of need people around me doing work,” she said. “I can’t just be by myself in a room, ‘cause then I’ll freak out and be like, ‘Oh my God, I’m falling behind,’ or ‘I’m going too fast’, or I’ll just think I’m doing something wrong.”

“The most challenging part was trying to learn how to change from focusing all my time on making friends and putting all that time into studies. I would not do schoolwork for a couple days ‘cause I was so upset. I’d go on Instagram and see them out partying. I’m like, I could be with them right now, but instead I’m over here doing school,” Domina said. “I was really angry at everything.”

Domina began to regain her momentum with the help of her “graduation candidate advocate"—an individual mentor who got her back on campus for full-day classes three days a week.

“We had a lot of long talks when I’d go to campus,” Domina said. “And she was like, ‘Girl, you better get your head on straight. Here’s what I did when I was younger and here’s what you’re doing; I want you to go in the other direction.’ She knew when I was goofing off and not doing anything and she called me out.”

Clark County’s is the largest dropout recovery program in Acceleration’s seven-state network, with about 1,300 students this fall. Margaret Sharp, the chief education officer for the nonprofit Acceleration Academies, said students need mentors who can help them think beyond graduation.

Nakaya Domina pictured at her home in Las Vegas, Nev., on Aug. 12, 2022. After dropping out of school during the pandemic, she returned to a credit recovery program, where her "graduation candidate advocate" has helped her stay engaged. She expects to graduate this summer, and will then enter a postsecondary program in digital marketing.

“There’s a huge dropout population out there, with a really big district and … a unique area for programming because of the casinos,” Sharp said. “It’s the city that doesn’t sleep and kids that drop out can go and work parking cars and make $60,000 a year. So the value proposition has to be broader, to help kids see why that kind of job might sound good when you’re 18 years old, but eventually it’s not going to lead to long-term financial security without a high school diploma.”

To keep Domina thinking long-term, the school connected her to a local company willing to pay her to become certified in digital marketing analysis after she graduated this August.

To re-engage students who have dropped out during the pandemic, Domina said, schools need to offer more mental health and other social supports, rather than only focusing on academic credit recovery.

“Help the kids get more psychological help—a counselor or a psychiatrist at school or at least have someone to turn the kids towards, so they’re not stuck in their head, going crazy,” she said.

At Acceleration, by contrast, “you just reach out and say, ‘Hey, I’m going through a rough time. I need some help here.’ And they’re right away like, ‘OK, well, here’s the programs we have. We’ll call them and tell them to reach out to you.’”

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness A FAFSA Calculation Error Could Delay College Aid Applications—Again
It's the latest blunder to upend the "Better FAFSA," as it was branded by the Education Department.
2 min read
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, poses for a portrait in the Folsom Library on Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. A later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid, is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions. Noyola said he hasn’t been able to submit his FAFSA because of an error in the parent portion of the application. “It’s disappointing and so stressful since all these issues are taking forever to be resolved,” said Noyola, who receives grants and work-study to fund his education.
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, stands in the university's library on Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. He's one of thousands of existing and incoming college students affected by a problem-plagued rollout of the revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid. A series of delays and errors is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions.
Hans Pennink/AP
College & Workforce Readiness How Well Are Schools Preparing Students? Advanced Academics and World Languages, in 4 Charts
New federal data show big gaps in students' access to the challenging coursework and foreign languages they need for college.
2 min read
Conceptual illustration of people and voice bubbles.
Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Learning Loss May Cost Students Billions in Future Earnings. How Districts Are Responding
The board that annually administers NAEP warns that recent research paints a "dire" picture of the future for America's children.
6 min read
Illustration concept of hands holding binoculars and looking through to see a graph and arrow with money in background.
Liz Yap/Education Week and iStock/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness The New FAFSA Is a Major Headache. Some High Schools Are Trying to Help
High schools are scrambling to help students navigate what was supposed to be a simpler process.
5 min read
Image of a laptop, and a red "x" for a malfunction.
IIIerlok_Xolms/iStock/Getty