SHS alternative school graduates 15 diverse students

SILVERTHORNE — A break- dancing instructor and an enlisted soldier for the U.S. Army have become friends and found promising pathways through the Alternative Education Program at Summit.

Jeff Bobon and Erick Santos exchanged high-fives in the hallway a couple hours before their commencement class of 15 — the final one to grace Silverthorne’s Summit Education Center hallways — accepted diplomas on Thursday.

“The thing about this class is they celebrate their differences, and we are sort of a microcosm of Summit County because of our diversity,” said ALTAS program director Lucy Adams.

She said the graduates range from poets and movie makers to mothers and dancers, and from those who’ve lived relatively comfortable lives to those who’ve “really had significant challenges.”

The ALTAS program offers Summit High School diplomas to students who — for a variety of reasons — weren’t getting what they needed from traditional high school.

Santos, 19, had moved between Durango, Mex. and Summit County a few times and found that he wouldn’t have enough credits to graduate in a reasonable time frame.

He plans to open a dance studio — perhaps in Frisco — where he’ll teach people how to break dance. Eventually he’d like to have a chain of the studios in Denver and elsewhere.

Santos has been helping friends and family hone their moves for two-and-a-half years and enjoys “getting people to know they can do it.”

“I love to dance,” he said, adding that it caused him to miss class time when he was at SHS.

He’s been break dancing since he was 11 years old, and his best moves include windmills.

Santos said the alternative-school experience has been a genuine opportunity.

“When you need help, they’re here,” he said.

Off to boot camp

Bobon, 17, leaves for Army boot camp in Fort Jackson, S.C. this August. He signed on for three-and-a-half years and plans to stay for 20 if he likes it.

“I never really did that great in school and it always kind of appealed to me,” he said of the military. “If the alternative school wasn’t an option, I probably would have just dropped out.”

He anticipates learning how to fly a helicopter and getting a commercial driver’s license, among other opportunities.

Bobon moved to Summit County from Michigan in spring 2008. He’s enjoyed spending time on the mountains of Breckenridge Ski Resort.

“Pretty much all I like to do is snowboard,” he said.

Between the state of the economy and his being “not that driven,” Bobon said he figures a guaranteed job in the Army is his best option.

“I always have a place to stay, stuff like that ... I kind of want to travel the world, and with the Army I can,” he said.

Adams “helped me a lot” and even provided the recruiter’s contact information, he said. “They do pretty much anything to help you.”

After the Army, Bobon said he may open a sports bar on the East Coast.

The ALTAS program has been at Summit Education Center — formerly Silverthorne Elementary — the past four years and is to be demolished this summer. A new location for the program has not been confirmed.

Adams said at least two of this semester’s graduates started kindergarten in the building when it was Silverthorne Elementary School “and they’re very touched by that.”

Robert Allen can be contacted at (970) 668-4628 or rallen@summitdaily.com.