Jonathan Ratliff

March 2017

Jonathan began acquiring services from CISGG in September 2016. In just a short period of time, CISGG was able to connect Jonathan to many significant resources so that he could focus on staying in school, graduating on time, and ultimately, succeeding in life!

Under the oversight of our Smith Site Coordinator, Mrs. Carla Douglas McMillan, Jonathan has been working with student intern Kat Kitchens. Both Mrs. McMillan and Kat specialize in case management services and pay special attention to Jonathan’s attendance and monitor his academic performance. Together, they carefully assessed Jonathan’s and his family’s needs, created an effective and comprehensive plan for how to facilitate, coordinate, and connect necessary resources, and finally, evaluate the results of those connections.

One of the first things Kat and Mrs. McMillan identified was that Jonathan was working too many hours which was not conducive to his school performance. Mrs. McMillan quickly reached out to Jonathan’s manager and advocated for a decrease in Jonathan’s work hours. As a result, he was able to focus on completing all of his homework and stopped oversleeping his first period class.

One of the resources they identified as beneficial for Jonathan was a tutor to help him with his more challenging Math and Spanish courses. They connected Jonathan with an awesome tutor, Reggie Wilbourn, a student at NC A&T. Reggie is a senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering (his second degree) at NC A&T, and he will soon move to Michigan to pursue a career with General Motors. With Reggie’s help, Jonathan has seen a tremendous improvement in those two subjects.

Jonathan is a Student in Transition (SIT) due to living between different homes of close friends and not his family. He and his family moved to Virginia at the end of his junior year, and due to conflicts he was facing with his mother, he moved himself back to Greensboro because he was determined to graduate from Smith. Having moved back by himself, Jonathan takes on the big responsibility of having to provide for himself. This is one of the reasons why he is a participant of the Backpack Beginning's program where he receives a food delivery every two weeks.

Jonathan loves Communities In Schools of Greater Greensboro® because he is very comfortable in this environment and appreciates the services that are connected to him. The continuous support of CISGG helps Jonathan to continue to thrive in his attendance and academics. Jonathan is an active student and is a part of the Marching Band, JROTC, and Men and Women of Smith.

Currently, Jonathan is deciding between joining the U.S. Armed Forces or applying to and possibly attending Guilford College with a focus in Physical Therapy. Jonathan says he is very interested in Sports Medicine and Criminal Justice. He is a very intelligent young man who holds much potential in making an impact in his future. We love and will continue to support Jonathan through the duration of his high school career at Smith and beyond!

For more information, please go to www.cisgg.org. To donate, please click on the link: Donate!