After we grew up, we had families, we had full-time jobs. For many years, we were all too busy to do much reading, or to do much of anything, really, for ourselves. The strong bond between us is our love of reading and talking!

Even though there were hundreds of volunteers who took time off from their jobs and dropped everything in their life to help in the relief effort, there was absolutely no sign of the federal government except in the area with a fence around it.

We have close to 46 percent of our graduates who already have jobs. And for the first time in a long time our graduates are experiencing multiple offers.

I've got 16 credits going. I have three jobs. I don't have time to get sick at all.

We were (previously) working regular jobs in San Diego, but we wanted to spend more time locally. This is part of what went into the name ---- we wanted to be 'Grounded' in the community.

There, they learn about organizing their time and what has to be done with all their jobs. A lot of our (12) kids in the program are out there.