MEET TUESDAY THORPE

Tuesday Thorpe is a determined woman. "You've just got to put your mind to it," she says when she talks about the challenges and rewards of going back to school. Tuesday's determination paid off: Last year, this 31-year-old woman with three children earned her GED. What's her advice to other learners, who, like her, are supporting families, raising children, and managing all the other responsibilities that make sticking with a GED program so hard? "You've just got to put your mind to it," she says again, with sincerity and heart.

"It just clicked" is another of Tuesday's favorite sayings. She uses it to describe the excitement she feels when she starts something new -- a suspenseful novel, a journal entry, or even a career in cosmetology. But she works hard to finish what she starts. (Mary Maples, her teacher at the Putnam County Adult Education Program in Cookeville, Tennessee, recalled that Tuesday was always eager for homework.)

Still, the path to earning her GED wasn't easy. She was out of school almost eight years before she started taking classes and she dropped out once. But Tuesday had the unfailing support of her family. In fact, family was one of the main reasons she went back to school. She wanted to be able to help her children with their homework and she wanted to make her family proud. Today, Tuesday is working toward a license in cosmetology. Some day she hopes to open her own beauty shop.

Read a Halloween story that Tuesday wrote.