Pace Center for Girls in Hillsborough and Pinellas County recently received a $170,000 grant from the Schoen Foundation to help provide girls with important programs. One Pace girl said she doesn\u2019t know where she\u2019d be without Pace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What You Need To Know<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pace Center for Girls in Hillsborough and Pinellas County recently received a $170,000 grant from the Schoen Foundation to help provide students with important programs. One of their students said she doesn\u2019t know where she\u2019d be without their help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taylor is a student at the Pace Center for Girls in Hillsborough County. Lately, she has taken up yoga at school, which she says has helped her learn to cope with the things life has thrown at her. Before practicing yoga, Taylor took classes studying with the other girls at the Pace Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s been attending school at the Pace Center for the last eight months, and in that short period of time she said she\u2019s completely turned her life around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was actually a sophomore in high school last year, and I was told I wouldn\u2019t be able to graduate or get my GED,\u201d said Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She described herself back then as a very angry person who had almost lost all hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I weren\u2019t at Pace right now, I\u2019d probably be at home, sleeping, crying, not doing anything with my life honestly,” Taylor said. “Probably a high school dropout, honestly.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, like in her yoga classes, she\u2019s learned how to work through uncomfortable feelings and her past trauma. The Schoen Grant helps provide counselors, like Celina Major, who meets with Taylor weekly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBeing able to see them change in their motivation has been really cool to see,” said Major. “I think with working with them in all areas of their life, from home to here, for even work \u2014 seeing them work in that way and seeing how they can come here and really focus on themselves.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n And while focusing on herself is a fairly new concept, Taylor said she has it mastered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have to think of it as, ‘OK, this is my mission, this is what I have to do \u2014 I\u2019m going to get there, and do it, and I\u2019m not going to let anybody else cross my barrier, or break down my wall, because I don\u2019t need to,’\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, Taylor knows she has the perseverance to push through anything, and achieve whatever she sets out to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can make the change, and the steps, and perseverance is such a main thing,” she said. “I will say that to anybody, you just need to persevere through the things you need to go through, and have patience, because that\u2019s all that matters \u2014 the patience, the perseverance, because things do get hard and you\u2019re only going to have yourself at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spectrum Bay News 9 is not giving out Taylor\u2019s last name to honor the policies set forth by the Pace Center for Girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n