SHE FOUND HER SPIRIT TO SOAR

WRITTEN BY MARCUS GOODYEAR | PHOTOS BY LYNZ BRUCE

“You are receiving a phone call from Bexar County Correctional Facility. Press one to accept.”

As soon as Dr. Kierra Hoye accepted, another voice came on the line, rough but animated. “Hey, I got your number from the cops and heard that you can help me get my diploma.”

No intros. No name. Straight to business.

“That sounds right,” Dr. Hoye said, then introduced herself and asked. “What’s your name?”

That’s how she met Aliyah Jackson who had been picked up on the street. She was homeless, but she didn’t want to be. She also didn’t want a GED. She wanted a diploma.

Jackson understands the value of second chances. “Just having a diploma gives the people the right idea and shows them that you can change your life around,” she said.

Fast forward to a Tuesday evening in early 2024, in the middle of a winter storm, and Jackson got what she wanted, what she worked for.

She and 35 other students walked the stage at Magik Theater that day, each one receiving a full high school diploma in the first graduation ceremony of 2024. Icicles were hanging under the signs on I-10, but that didn’t prevent friends and family from filling the house. It would take more than a hard freeze warning to keep them away.

Jackson was also awarded one of three Spirit to Soar Awards—an honor similar to valedictorian. The award meant she would address her fellow graduates.

“I ain’t gonna lie,” she told the audience. “I’ve never really thought I was gonna finish school.” Jackson said she discovered a better place for herself by avoiding distractions, including certain people who didn’t have the same goals as she did. She didn’t want to end up in the same place they were going.

“I’ve never really thought I was gonna finish school.”

“Being around the right people helped me get to where I am today,” she said. People like Kierra Hoye and Sam and Maria and Zuly and Kristine and so many support staff who gave her a second chance through the Young Adult Stability and Support (YASS) Center.

The night was a community celebration. Students wore blue robes and mortar boards—many of them customized with glitter, flowers, personal photos, and inspirational notes like “Por mi familia,” “for us foreva,” and “I wanted to give up … This one’s for y’all.” One student also wore a custom stole, handembroidered with bright flowers and her name.

Two children around three and five years old cheered loudly when their mom crossed the stage: “Mom! Mom! Way to go, Jasmine!” Next to them, their grandmother captured the moment on her phone and wiped tears from her cheeks.

NO SHAME—JUST PERSISTENCE

When I spoke with Hoye about the program, she described the network of organizations who help make it possible. Officially, she is a SOAR! Academic Coach with the Young Adult Stability and Support (YASS) Center. SOAR! stands for See Our Achievements Rise, and YASS is a youth drop-in center located at Travis Park Church downtown and serving young adults 18-24 who are experiencing homelessness.

“JUST HAVING A DIPLOMA GIVES THE PEOPLE THE RIGHT IDEA AND SHOWS THEM THAT YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE AROUND.”

SA Youth staff said they formed relationships like these with other nonprofit leaders when the organization went through H. E. Butt Foundation’s capacity-building program.

Three organizations come together to make YASS possible. SA Youth handles education. SAMMinstries manages students’ cases and works to find housing if they need it—about nine of the 36 students graduating earlier this year had struggled with homelessness. Corazon Ministries provides other services such as food, health care, and community activities.

“Our kids have experienced real life,” Hoye tells me, by which she means hard life. “And we have to help them navigate all of that.” Many of them have negative views of traditional school and themselves. Many of them continue to struggle in ways that are hard to anticipate.

“They’ll disappear for weeks, then I’ll find out they were incarcerated,” says Hoye, “but I don’t know until I know because a lot of them don’t have phones or their number gets shut off.”

There is no shame at SOAR! Only persistence. A large part of Hoye’s job is what she calls “unschooling.” She helps the students feel safe. She sets her educator cap aside and thinks holistically—social services, counseling, trauma.

“OUR KIDS HAVE EXPERIENCED REAL LIFE…AND WE HAVE TO HELP THEM NAVIGATE ALL THAT.”

Students can work with two therapists, Zuly and Kristine, who offer individual and group therapy sessions. Zuly is a Licensed Master Social Worker, Kristine a licensed professional counselor associate. Their positions have been made possible by a grant approved last year by the City of San Antonio, and the sessions are making a difference. Although the students are learning to overcome the stigma of getting help to stay mentally well, that hurdle pales in comparison to the cost of mental healthcare. At the YASS Center, mental health is accessible to everyone they serve.

Hoye is constantly amazed by the resilience she sees in the students. “The things they see and do,” she says. “They’re survivalists. The street smarts these kids have. They can run circles around me.”

Getting that diploma isn’t easy for any of them, including Aliya Jackson, who did not want her past to define her. As she was finishing her schoolwork, she got a couple of jobs, then she finished and got some more jobs. Finally, last year, Jackson was accepted to Palo Alto College.

The day of the SOAR! graduation was actually Jackson’s first day of college.

“How was it?” I ask her.

She smiles. “Good. It’s good. Actually, easier than I thought.”

Jackson says this with humility, as if to remind everyone around her that they can do it, too. They can focus and eliminate distractions. It isn’t always easy, Jackson admits. When the distractions return, she says, “I just, I go into a deep thought, you know, and isolate myself. “People can’t really help you with your own emotions,” she observes. “I mean, they can tell you how to feel about them, but you only can tell yourself how to be motivated.”

“PEOPLE CAN’T REALLY HELP YOU WITH YOUR OWN EMOTIONS,” SHE OBSERVES. “I MEAN, THEY CAN TELL YOU HOW TO FEEL ABOUT THEM, BUT YOU ONLY CAN TELL YOURSELF HOW TO FEEL MOTIVATED.”