Westminster graduate says Gateway, Carroll’s alternative high school, put him on path to success

Bobby Carter was among the 25 students to celebrate their graduation Wednesday night from Carroll County’s Gateway High School. And like most graduates, Bobby, 17, felt a mix of nerves and excitement, and a lot of gratitude, too.

“A while back I just really thought this day would never come,” Bobby said. “Honestly, it just felt so far away, so far-fetched, and didn’t really seem realistic to me.”

The Westminster teen will next attend Carroll Community College’s welding program, and said attending Gateway put him on the path to success.

Gateway is a Carroll County Public Schools alternative high school, designed to monitor and improve student behavior to promote success for students who need it.

Bobby moved to Westminster in 2022 after spending more than three years attending a public high school in Howard County. He was a passionate member of the football team, until he began to feel mentally torn down by a coach who took the game very seriously, he said.

“[High school football] was definitely a major highlight of my life,” Bobby said. “I enjoyed every last minute of it, but it felt like when I didn’t have football, and I was put in a situation where I had to leave it, it felt like I lost a part of me that day. I just didn’t really see much of a purpose in going to public school anymore, because I felt like I wasn’t getting a whole lot out of it and I wasn’t really learning all that much.”

The athlete said he had a productive, adult conversation with the coach to let him know that he was leaving the team, but was emotional and broke down in front of his mom afterward. After that day, Bobby struggled to be present and engaged in his education.

“I just woke up one day I told my mom, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ like, public school,” he said. “I was tired mentally, physically, emotionally, basically all of the above, and that’s when we started our path to find alternative routes of education.”

They heard about Gateway through a family friend and decided it would be a good fit. Bobby said the school’s smaller class sizes meant one-on-one help was more available, and he was less stressed due to the program’s no-homework policy. Gateway’s guidance counselors were particularly helpful.

“Mentally, I was doing horrible at some point,” he said. “When I was in my original public high school, there was a time where I just felt like I was going to fail. I eventually did find an alternative path of education, and that has helped me tremendously. Without it, I don’t think I would have ever gotten to this point and graduated still on time.”

The graduate was encouraged by a Gateway teacher to apply for a scholarship from First Financial Credit Union. When he learned he was selected to receive $3,000, it brought on a wave of emotions.

“Once I received that phone call, I was completely shocked, surprised, happy, a lot positive feelings,” Bobby said, “and it really made me feel like this was the start to a very successful direction for me to take.”

He is set to begin the welding program at the community college this fall. He said it costs about $3,050, so the scholarship covers almost everything he needs.

Those who complete the six-month, 120-hour welding program and earn a journeyman’s license from the American Welding Society, can expect to earn around $53,000 per year, Jeremy Ropp, the instructor and Carroll Community College coordinator of advanced manufacturing, innovation and information technology, said last year.

The promise of good money and opportunity for promotion appealed to Bobby, and he said it is also a creative outlet for him. He is now looking forward to working hard to live a stable life and pursue his dreams.

“I have my whole plan etched out already,” he said. “It’s something that I’m very, very much looking forward to, and I’m honestly just really ready.”

According to Amy Barnard, the Gateway School’s registrar, three of this year’s graduates plan to attend four-year colleges, five will attend two-year colleges, four will pursue education in a trade, two have secured apprenticeships, 10 have found employment upon graduating, and one will enlist in the military,