Waukegan High seniors share dreams at Celebration Day event; ‘I want to make Waukegan a better place'
Many of the teens embarking on adulthood have one thing in common — they plan to return to their hometown after their post-secondary schooling. They plan careers in law, education, healthcare and more, like Yami Montejano, who will attend National Louis University in the fall.
Through a church group, Montejano said she got involved in environmental projects, keeping the community cleaner and dealing with pollution. Majoring in business, she sees providing affordable housing for the community as another goal.
'I want to build Section 8 housing for single parents with children,' Montejano said. 'My mom was a single parent. My dad was an alcoholic and died when I was 9. I want to make Waukegan a better place so people don't have to go through what we did.'
Montejano was just one of the more than 700 seniors participating in the Senior Celebration Day on Monday on the Washington Campus in Waukegan, with dancing, a photo booth, a picnic lunch and games.
Jahleel Shepherd, a college and career counselor at the high school, said that with the seniors ready to go to college, join the workforce or enlist in the military, Celebration Day is a chance for them to have a final opportunity to be with each other as a group.
'It's a celebration for Waukegan seniors to be together as they make important life choices,' Shepherd said.
Approximately 80% will attend college, either at a two-year school like the College of Lake County or a four-year university, Shepherd said.
Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham is a Waukegan High graduate who returned to his hometown after college. He established an insurance business, spent 18 years as an alderman, four as mayor and is starting another four-year term. He was pleased to hear about those wishing to return home.
'This is part of rebuilding Waukegan,' he said. 'Our young men and young women who want to return home are looking for a different Waukegan. This is what I and other leaders are preparing our city for. They want to pay it forward.'
Victor Hinojosa was a two-term student member of the District 60 Board of Education and active in other political organizations, both locally and nationally. He is headed to the University of Chicago to study public administration and political science before going to law school.
'I'm going to do something in public service and activism to serve my community,' Hinojosa said of his life after college and law school. 'Waukegan is my home, and the place where I want to make a difference.'
Another future lawyer is Ja'Cara Smith. She will attend Alabama A&M University, where she will study criminal justice first before going to law school. She has not decided on a home after her schooling.
Lamero Ceaser, a member of the football and wrestling teams, is heading to Augustana University. He also plans a career in law as a family and criminal law attorney, probably as a prosecutor. He, too, plans to practice in Waukegan.
'I want to be an advocate for people who need justice,' he said.
Angeline Flores plans to study nursing at CLC. She plans to get a job in Waukegan or nearby. She said it will allow her to be close to family. Nursing will allow her to 'help people,' she said.
Adriana Franklin is already teaching preschool at the CLC Tech Campus. She is going to Illinois State University after graduation to earn her degree in the subject before returning to Waukegan to teach young children.
'Every child should start school at 3,' Franklin said. 'They learn so much between 3 and 5. I see it every day. They will have a hard time catching up if they don't.'
Not everyone is going to college, and some will venture far from home. Jefferson Perez and Josue Montoya will be U.S. Marines on May 26, 10 days after they graduate high school. Their reason is similar to their other classmates' choices.
'I want to help my country and everyone in it,' Perez said.
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Black America Web
21-07-2025
- Black America Web
Low-Income Families Face Homelessness Under Proposed HUD Changes
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Havalah Hopkins rarely says no to the chain restaurant catering gigs that send her out to Seattle-area events — from church potlucks to office lunches and graduation parties. The delivery fees and tips she earns on top of $18 an hour mean it's better than minimum-wage shift work, even though it's not consistent. It helps her afford the government-subsidized apartment she and her 14-year-old autistic son have lived in for three years, though it's still tough to make ends meet. 'It's a cycle of feeling defeated and depleted, no matter how much energy and effort and tenacity you have towards surviving,' Hopkins said. Still, the 33-year-old single mother is grateful she has stable housing — experts estimate just 1 in 4 low-income households eligible for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rental assistance get the benefits. And now Hopkins is at risk of losing her home, as federal officials move to restrict HUD policy. 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She had been struggling to scrape together hundreds of dollars more a month for her previous trailer home. 'There's no words to put on feeling like your housing is secure,' Hopkins said. 'I feel like I was gasping for air and I'm finally able to breathe.' She credits the housing subsidy for her ability to finally leave an abusive marriage, and still dreams of more — perhaps her own catering business or working as a party decorator. 'We all can't be lawyers and doctors — and two years isn't enough to even become that,' Hopkins said. Since learning of Trump's proposal, Hopkins said she's been haunted by thoughts of shoving her possessions into a van with her son, upending the stability she built for him. The average household in HUD-subsidized housing stays about six years, studies show. HUD funds local public housing projects where nearly 1 million households live and the Section 8 vouchers that about 4 million households use to offset their private rentals. There's been little guidance from HUD on how time-limited housing assistance would be implemented — how it would be enforced, when the clock starts and how the exemptions would be defined. Both Democrats and Republicans have acknowledged the potential for time limits to help curb HUD's notorious waitlists. Hard-liners contend the threat of housing loss will push people to reach self-sufficiency; others see limits, when coupled with support and workforce incentives, as a means to motivate tenants to improve their lives. Yet there are strikingly few successful examples. NYU researchers identified just 17 public housing authorities that have tested time limits. None of the programs were designed for only two years and 11 abandoned the restriction — despite being able to use federal dollars for services to help people achieve self-sufficiency. Several agencies that dropped the limits said tenants still struggled to afford housing after their time was up. 'These policies are complex and difficult to monitor, enforce, and do well,' NYU's Aiken said. The city of Keene, New Hampshire, tried five-year time limits starting in 2001, but terminated the policy before fully enforcing it to avoid kicking out households that would still be 'rent burdened, or potentially homeless,' said Josh Meehan, executive director of Keene Housing. In California, Shawnté Spears of the Housing Authority of San Mateo County said the agency has kept its five-year time limit in tandem with educational programs she says have 'given folks motivation' to meet their goals. It also gives more people the chance to use vouchers, she said. NYU's Aiken acknowledged HUD's long waitlists make the current system 'a bit of a lottery,' adding: 'You could say that time limits are a way of increasing people's odds in that lottery.' HUD's Section 8 programs have long depended on hundreds of thousands of for-profit and nonprofit small business owners and property managers to accept tenant vouchers. Now, landlords fear a two-year limit could put their contracts for HUD-subsidized housing in limbo. Amid the uncertainty, Denise Muha, executive director of the National Leased Housing Association, said multiple landlord groups have voiced their concerns about HUD's next budget in a letter to congressional leaders. She said landlords generally agree two years is simply not enough time for most low-income tenants to change their fortunes. 'As a practical matter, you're going to increase your turnover, which is a cost,' Muha said. 'Nobody wants to throw out their tenants without cause.' It's always been a significant lift for private landlords to work with HUD subsidies, which involve burdensome paperwork, heavy oversight and maintenance inspections. But the trade-off is a near guarantee of dependable longer-term renters and rental income. If that's compromised, some landlords say they'd pull back from the federal subsidy programs. Brad Suster, who owns 86 Chicago-area units funded by HUD, said accepting subsidies could become risky. 'Would we have the same reliability that we know has traditionally come for countless years from the federal government?' Suster said. 'That's something landlords and owners want to know is there.' The diminishing housing stock available to low-income tenants has been a brewing problem for HUD. Between 2010 and 2020, some 50,000 housing providers left the voucher program, the agency has reported. It's up for debate whether lawmakers will buy into Trump's vision for HUD. This week the U.S. House appropriations committee is taking up HUD's 2026 budget, which so far makes no mention of time limits. HUD's Lovett noted the Senate's budget plans for the agency have not yet been released, and said the administration remains focused on future implementation of time limits. 'HUD will continue to engage with colleagues on the hill to ensure a seamless transition and enforcement of any new time limit,' Lovett said in a statement. Noëlle Porter, the director of government affairs at the National Housing Law Project, said Trump's fight for time limits is far from over, noting that legislative and rule changes could make them a reality. 'It is clearly a stated goal of the administration to impose work requirements and time limits on rental assistance, even though it would be wildly unpopular,' Porter said. Democratic Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina says there's no evidence time limits would save HUD money. 'This doesn't help families who already are working multiple jobs to become self-sufficient,' Clyburn said at a June hearing. 'Instead, it creates chaos, financial uncertainty and pushes these families into more severe trade-offs.' Time limits could imperil Aaliyah Barnes' longtime dream of graduating college and becoming a nurse, finding a job and a home she can afford. The 28-year-old single mom in Louisville, Kentucky, this year joined Family Scholar House, which provides counseling and support for people pursuing an education — and, to Barnes' relief, housing. Her apartment is paid for by a Section 8 voucher. In March, Barnes moved in and her 3-year-old son, Aarmoni, finally got his own room, where she set up a learning wall. Previously, she had struggled to afford housing on her wages at a call center — and living with her mom, two sisters and their kids in a cramped house was an environment ridden with arguments. The stable future she's building could disappear, though, if she's forced out in two years when her schooling is expected to take three years. 'I'd be so close, but so far away,' Barnes said. Ho and Kramon write for the Associated Press.
