Amariani Garcia
Lantern Staff
Almuqade Alwaeli is one of the newest students in Butler’s Adult Education Program and is on track to receive his high school diploma (GED). Alwaeli heard of the program from a friend who attended Butler and has pushed him to receive his diploma and continue with his schooling.
Alwaeli has been working on his GED for five weeks and is preparing to take the GED test. The test has different exams such as English, math, science and history. Alwaeli plans to attend Butler after receiving his GED and plans to receive a degree in the medical field and become a physician’s assistant.
“If I have a goal and work with people without goals, I will probably think I am fine but slowly after that, my mind will be destroyed,” Alwaeli said. “It becomes very easy to ruin other people’s goals, and I do not want that happening to me. It only takes 40 days.”
GED classes range from math, English, history and science. Students have all their classes online, but have the option to study online or with books.
Alwaeli has a harder time than most because of his language barrier. English is not Alwaeli’s first language, so he tries to study as much as he can.
“I speak three languages: Turkish, Arabic and English,” Alwaeli said. “I already graduated from high school in my home country, but it isn’t the same. I have to translate everything and that’s not possible, it’s hard.”
According to students like Alwaeli, Butler does a great job for students regarding affordability. Students have a one time per semester fee of $30, though Butler has scholarships such as the El Dorado Charities in place for students who need the help to complete the program.
“I thought it would be a lot harder, but the good thing was everyone was very nice,” Alwaeli said. “I gave them a call and explained everything, and they told me to just come over and try it.”
Sherry Watkins, director of Adult Education, is close to each student who comes into the program and accepts all students who are on different paths.
“We have great students, and they come for all different reasons,” Watkins said. “Some to get their diploma, some that have been out of school and want to go to college. Quite often we have a lot of international students who would rather get a GED instead of paying for an expensive transfer.”
Butler has many locations at each campus to make receiving a high school diploma as easy as possible.
“We usually have about 250 students here and 250 students at the Wichita Indochinese center,” Watkins said. “We have about 500 students in a school year, who will go to college or earn their certificate or enter the workforce.”
International and immigrant students find it more cost effective to earn their GED rather than go through the process of paying for their transcript and going through a long process. They also have classes that teach the basics of the English, like the alphabet, for those who do not comprehend the English.
“The GED comes in two languages, English and Spanish, but most of them choose to take their test in English to show employers they can do it,” Watkins said. “We also have pre-literacy classes that are in place for those whose languages do not have the Roman based alphabet in the Wichita center. The GED is pass or fail. Forty percent of high school students fail the GED exam; this showcases that it is harder to receive the GED than attend high school.”
Alwaeli hopes to attend Butler in the fall. So far, Butler has had nine graduates earn their high school diploma, and Butler also allows students who pass their exam in the spring semester to walk in May’s graduation.
Adult Education welcomes any student who wants to receive their high school diploma. They can be contacted at adult_ed@butlercc.edu or by telephone (316) 323-6074.