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Nerissa Boyd

NERISSA BOYD

Portland High School

Nerissa Boyd dropped out of Portland High School twice. And still, she had the will to return last September and buckle down for one last go at it. She graduated earlier this month -- a year late but with honors.

The first time she dropped out, she was halfway through her freshman year. Her sister had given birth to her first child and was raising the child alone.

"My sister and I are very, very close, and she was exhausted, and she needed my help," Boyd said. "I wasn't really interested in school then anyway. I was skipping classes all the time with my friends. I started staying at my sister's place in Westbrook all the time and stopped going to school at all."

Boyd returned to Portland High for the start of her sophomore year. She made it halfway through her senior year before dropping out again, this time because she was involved in an abusive relationship, she said.

She eventually ended the relationship and, with prodding from Portland High staff, returned to school last fall. She said she realized that she wouldn't get anywhere in life without a high school diploma.

She also had a new boyfriend, a Portland High junior who was struggling in school, too. Together, they forged ahead in Portland High's alternative education program. It allows students at risk of dropping out to earn credits more quickly by combining English and history courses and math and science courses. She got mostly A's.

"She came back and worked hard and caught herself up," said Sophie Payson, a social worker in the alternative education program. "She's incredibly bright and very resilient. She never gave up."

Boyd said her mother, Elite Bouchard, never lost faith that she would graduate, but her father, Paul Boyd, was more skeptical.

She figures she gave him plenty of reason to doubt her. "He didn't think I could keep a commitment to anything," she said.

On graduation day, he had to admit that he was wrong. "That was pretty sweet," she said.

Now 19, Boyd said she plans to take courses at the Maine College of Art. She also may pursue a culinary arts degree with her boyfriend so they can open a restaurant together.

"I know I want to continue my education," she said.

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:

kbouchard@pressherald.com