Curtis' Story | Page 13 | Youth Insearch

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Sun, 20/11/2016 - 11:35

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Newsletter, Stories

Curtis was sitting in one of the group sessions at a Youth Insearch Weekend Workshop. The leader of the session asked Curtis:

“What do you want to do with your life?”
“I want to go to uni to do architecture.” he replied.
“Do you go to school?”
“Yes and no. I’ve only been in Sydney a short time.”

But he had not attended school for the first eight weeks of Year 10.
 
Curtis’ previous school experiences had not been positive, so going back to a new school and staying there proved to be challenging for him. Some days he attended only half the day, but he gradually increased his attendance to full days. He worked hard to achieve some great results. With the support he gained from Youth Insearch, he was able to stick it out and was thrilled to eventually graduate Year 10. His next goal, was to complete the HSC.
 
The next two years difficult, however with some gentle encouragement from his peers at Youth Insearch, as well as his own tenacity, he stayed at school until the end of year 12 and completed the HSC exams.
 
During those two years, Curtis was given the opportunity to train as a tattoo artist. He travelled by public transport – two trains and a bus trip – each weekend to the studio and eventually earned enough money to pay for his tattoo license.
 
Late last year Curtis applied to the National Art School in Sydney to complete an arts degree. He didn’t hear back from the school and continued with the tattoo artistry.  Earlier this year Curtis reported that he had just completed the first couple of weeks at the National Arts School. To this day he is still there, having just completed first year exams and has every intention of getting that degree.
 
This is the gift of Youth Insearch; providing the opportunity for young people to ‘be the change they want in their own lives.’