Karim has the phrase “without struggle there is no progress” tattooed on his hands. Across his knuckles are two simple words: “Live Life.”
These mantras run deeper than just ink on skin. Karim, who was raised in foster care and says he had little stability or support, knows struggle. But he was ultimately able to tackle life’s challenges, due in part, he says, to his high school diploma.
It’s a big accomplishment — and one he achieved much later than conventionally expected, at age 26.
Karim’s story is part of a new PSA campaign that champions high school equivalency education (such as the GED) by Dollar General Literacy Foundation, an organization supporting education and literacy initiatives for all ages.
The PSAs, a reinvigoration of the foundation’s Finish Your Diploma campaign that launched six years ago, feature the stories of eight adults who earned or are currently pursuing their high school diplomas after leaving school as teens.
The campaign hopes to inspire some of the 29 million U.S. adults who do not have high school diplomas to pursue their degrees. Viewers can also support adult graduates by sharing a video on social media with them tossing a cap, using the hashtag #HatsOffToYou.
“It was important for us to celebrate real graduates without scripting or embellishment.”
The “Finish Your Diploma” campaign was first created in 2010 in collaboration with the Ad Council. The new PSAs were produced by ad agency McKinney.
“It was important for us to celebrate real graduates without scripting or embellishment,” Stevie Archer, group creative director at McKinney, said in a statement. “We want people who are thinking about finishing their high school diplomas to see their own realities in the stories that we share.”
Notably, one of the PSAs is entirely in Spanish, encouraging non-native English speakers to pursue their high school equivalency degrees. It’s an essential aspect of the conversation around educational attainment, as Spanish-speaking adults in the U.S. are a population especially vulnerable to being overlooked when it comes to education.
As of 2015, 88 percent of adults in the United States had their high school diploma or GED. Only 67 percent of Hispanic adults, however, had their high school diplomas or GEDs — the lowest of any racial group in the U.S. by more than 10 percent.
“No one gets a diploma alone. You have help.”
About 92 percent of people born in the U.S. finished high school or a high school equivalency program, as opposed to only 72 percent of people born internationally.
“As adults are considering finishing their diploma, often the greatest challenge is simply knowing where to go for support and having the courage to take the first step toward completing their diploma,” Denine Torr, director of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, said in a press release. “By coupling real stories with information about free local adult education classes and resources, we hope the new commercials will inspire and empower individuals to pursue their dreams through education.”
The series of PSAs encourage viewers to visit FinishYourDiploma.org, a collaborative site developed by the Ad Council and Dollar General Literacy Foundation, which provides information about free adult education courses. The site is also available entirely in Spanish.
At the end of each PSA, a simple statement appears on the screen: “No one gets a diploma alone. You have help.”
In his video, Karim says his daughter, Brooklyn, was his motivation to get his high school equivalency degree. But, he admits, he couldn’t have successfully gained his diploma on that motivation alone. Karim says broader support — including that of his wife — was instrumental in allowing him to balance fatherhood and employment with his educational pursuits.
“I see the future is really bright for me,” Karim says in the PSA. “The high school diploma has just added to the confidence, and now I feel unstoppable.”
