September 20th 2011 (REVISED) 10-12-11

Attending a school inside of a mall was a very interesting and unusual experience. The day I received the news that I would be attending a school inside a mall was the day that I thought it was a school for "special" kids. My thoughts growing up as a child were that there was going to be a huge high school that you will get lost in and will have halls so long it seemed as if they would never end. UPREP was the total opposite. UPREP was a Charter Academy school based in the heart of East Oakland, Ca. There was one big room full of students separated by office cubicles, as awkward as that sounds it made me very comfortable. A small environment with hands on instructors was what I needed the most to have a successful 4 years of high school. The teachers were among the best of the best teachers in all of Oakland at the time. They seemed willing and ready to teach at all times although later it was proven otherwise. Before the school year was over more than 70% of the teachers we started with were no longer there. Further into my years at UPREP the school had expanded and the teachers/students did also so the small community I was use to no longer existed. All students were expected to leave that high school and go straight into a 4 year college, for some this was the case and others it was not. With the help and guidance of my teachers and peers as well as family I was able to go straight to Sacramento State University!! This school had many ups and downs but the UPS outweighed the downs.