KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Goodwill is bringing an adult high school to Kansas City.
The Excel Center of KC will open in August 2025 off of Interstate 435 and Bannister Road.
The center will allow adults to go back to school to complete their high school diploma while offering free daycare, life coaches, and a custom curriculum to meet students where they are.
There are over 40 of these schools in the U.S., but not many people know Goodwill also has a high school.
"I think it will be good," said Samantha Pierre, a Goodwill shopper. "A lot of people need to maybe go back and get their GEDs or something like that."
Jenny Tucker works with Goodwill. She teaches basic resources like Microsoft and resume building out of a mobile classroom.
Tucker was once part of the program she teaches now.
"I ended up going homeless," Tucker said. "I went and got evicted. Lost my job, the car broke down."
But she was able to go back to school to get to where she is now.
While she didn't go to a Goodwill high school, she still remembers what it felt like to receive her diploma after all of her hard work.
"It was the best day of my life," Tucker said.
Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas was quoted saying there are 60,000 adults in KC who don't have their high school diplomas.
Mike Sinnett, Goodwill's CEO and president, believes the Excel Center of KC may be a solution.
"Everybody’s looking for staff, everybody needs staff," Sinnett said. "Well, if you don’t have a high school diploma, you really limit some of your earnings potential, you limit who you can go to work for."
Tucker created a world for herself where there are no limits, and she hopes it's something she can continue to teach her future students.
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