Faces & places

Gasoline was $4 a gallon. Tiffany Goins was pregnant with her third child. Her husband, Robert, had kidney failure and required dialysis four days a week. Despite the obstacles, Goins wanted to earn her GED® certificate so she could get a better job. She just couldn’t figure out how.

Then came a breakthrough moment. Goins saw a flyer from the Ohio Literacy Network (OLN) and OLN’s Lisa Larson told Goins about GED Connection, a GED preparation program where she could learn from television, workbooks, and/or internet lessons.

"In that moment, getting my GED went from being some impossible situation to a situation I could make work for me," Goins recalls.

Larson donated the workbooks and provided the videos. Soon, Goins, who loves to read, was rolling through the workbooks. When she found a section that challenged her, Goins met with OLN instructor Diane Kricer.

"They were perfect," Goins says of the workbooks. "They started from easy and went to hard. They even had pages where they explained how to do the problems."

As Goins studied, her children often asked what she was doing. Goins explained she was studying and why. "Mommy we’re studying for school, too," her children would reply. "That was all the motivation I needed," Goins says.

On October 12, 2009, Goins earned her GED certificate. "I broke a generational curse; neither my grandparents nor my parents graduated high school, and I needed this GED to show my kids they can do it." says Goins.

"Once you accomplish this, you start feeling good about yourself," Goins says. "You want to keep on accomplishing things." Now her children know they can do it, she says. "My kids are going to be scientists and doctors."