himself inside me, my entire body went limp. I became a dead fish and stopped fighting. It was as if a part of my soul had died. The playful, naïve and bubbly version of myself from that day forth was brutally murdered and in its place arose someone who was resentful, untrusting, and cynical. I became a shell of who I once was. For a year and half after the rape, that was whom I identified myself as: a victim, an empty shell, a damaged girl with heaps of baggage no one wanted to carry. But not anymore. For a year after the rape, I had the same recurring nightmare of being constantly raped repeatedly by a faceless monster for months and months. I was never able tofive good friends. Only three passed the A&E test. Vicente was one of them. But he was not able to attend the graduation because he already got a job as a seaman,” she says.

Amelia

Then there’s the story of Amelia, who became pregnant when she was in third year high school. She was 24 years old and a working mother of two when she realized that in order to get a good job, she needed a college degree. But in order to go to college, she had to finish high school. She, however, didn’t want to go back to regular school. She would feel out of place with classmates 10 years her junior.

She enrolled in ALS at the Don Alejandro Roces Sr. Science and Technology High School and would