“Believe in yourself”

Omega School, a non-profit community organization providing preparation for the High School Equivalency Diploma (HSED) and General Education Development Test (GED), has been serving students since 1972. Students at Omega School come from a variety of backgrounds and have each faced different challenges preventing them from obtaining a high school degree.

Oscar Mireles

Providing an alternative to a traditional school setting, it’s Omega School’s
goal to overcome these obstacles with tailor-made programming and one-on-one instruction.
Omega School is led by Executive Director Oscar Mireles, whose no-nonsense approach and tough love has enabled many students, both young and old, to obtain their GED or HSED. But for Mireles, Omega School shouldn’t be the last stop for his students. He views the school as an “access point” for his students to go on to bigger and better things. In other words, Omega offers a much-needed opportunity for students who struggled in high school to finally succeed, and hopefully, go on to pursue a more advanced degree.
One such student, Andrew Xiong, will graduate from Omega School this June. It is no small feat for this 18-year-old. Xiong, the son of Hmong refugees who fled Laos to avoid persecution, lost his mother at the tender age of three. Raised by his father (who is now remarried) on Madison’s south side, Xiong struggled at West High School from the very beginning.
“I wasn’t doing so great in high school,” he admitted. “I really screwed up my first year and had to repeat my freshman year.”
He admits that a big part of the problem was his social circle.
“I hung out with the wrong crowd,” Xiong said. “A lot of my friends skipped school. Attending everyday was a really hard thing for me to do.”
It got much harder for Xiong when he fathered his first child, a daughter now seven-months-old. He is “culturally married” and his girlfriend attends school at Work and Learn. She is also a participant of Operation Fresh Start, an in-depth program that trains struggling youth in housing construction and rehabilitation. She hopes to one day pursue a degree in nursing.
As young parents struggling to start a life, a traditional high school setting simply wasn’t a good fit for the busy couple. For Xiong, that is where Omega School came in. After a failed stint at Work and Learn, Xiong was close to giving up hope that he would obtain a high school degree or equivalency. Even his experience at Omega School started off rocky.
“I didn’t show up my first week,” Xiong admitted. “But, right away, I got a call from Oscar.”
Staying true to form and putting his tough love techniques to work, Mireles wasn’t taking any excuses. For many students, it is precisely that extra push that helps them complete the Omega School program. It is, indeed, what finally helped Xiong succeed. After his first encounter with Mireles, he made sure to fulfill his hourly requirements at Omega each week. In just two months, he was able to pass the tests required to obtain his HSED.
“Omega School really gave me everything,” Xiong said. “They’re really great people [at Omega] and they make sure you do your work.”
Most importantly, Omega helped Xiong believe in himself.
“I really gained self-confidence,” he said.
At Omega, that is a crucial piece to their educational outlook. They don’t want their students just walking out with a piece of paper; they want them walking out with a renewed sense of hope and self-confidence. School instructors and staff members work hard to create an environment where students feel comfortable and
supported. Many come to Omega feeling incompetent; Mireles and his team hope to restore their self-esteem.
There is no doubt that they were able to accomplish this goal with Xiong. No longer dubbed a high school drop-out, Xiong is ready to move on to bigger and better things. He plans to attend Madison Area Technical College this Spring.
About graduating, he simply said, “I’m really happy, man.”