Isabelle Rudea Munoz, 22, attended high school during the pandemic. There was a shortage of teachers. All of her classes and social interactions were online.
She was an average student academically, but passionate about her outside activities. They were what kept Munoz coming to school. COVID-19 put an end to all of them.
"I was really involved in music and theater and, like, community engagement within school,” Munoz said. “And when the pandemic started, and all the schools shut down, the rug was kind of pulled out from under me with all the extra programs being canceled.”
Munoz fell into despair without school or any of her outside activities. She lost the motivation to finish school, abandoning her dreams of becoming a teacher. She dropped out and worked as a babysitter, did random gig work and eventually became a server at a restaurant.
Scrolling online one day, she came upon the website for Goodwill’s Excel Center.
The Goodwill Excel Center is a tuition-free, accredited program that enables adults like Munoz who don’t have a high school diploma to come back and get the credits they need to finish. Once they’ve graduated, they get a certificate acknowledging they've met the criteria to go on to either higher education or the workplace.
For Munoz, it was a lifeline after pandemic-era isolation.
Munoz resurrected her dream of becoming a teacher. She enrolled in the Excel program and after eight weeks, not only had the academic credentials she needed to graduate, but the community she was missing from a school setting.
“A lot of us were really adamant about checking on each other,” she said. "If we hadn't seen somebody in a couple of days, we were making sure that, you know, they were getting emailed at home and stuff, and if somebody didn't have a ride, we were always coordinating that to help each other out.”
With the help of her new community and teachers at the center, Munoz attended a multitude of classes, many of which were in the discipline of Language Arts. She said Communication Arts, in particular, helped her a lot.
“That was actually really beneficial, despite having kind of an untraditional curriculum," she said, "because we were mostly, like, reviewing public speaking examples and, like, kind of doing Socratic seminar style. Talking to each other about our personal lives and being really vulnerable with each other.”
Munoz graduated with her high school diploma months later, in June.
The Excel Center Kansas City is run by Metropolitan Employment and Rehabilitation Services (MERS) Goodwill. It’s designed to support adults in Missouri interested in furthering their academic or technical education. According to America Health Rankings for 2024, 8% of Missourians 25 and older do not have a high school diploma.
Excel semesters or “terms” are eight weeks long. Some students need to complete up to five terms to meet qualifications for a diploma within a year. Since opening its doors October 2025, the program has served 193 students. In the first graduating class, 10 students received diplomas, most going on to jobs or further education.
Shannon Burke, Creative Director with Goodwill, said would-be students come to the program with a wide range of needs.
“There's not exactly a one-to-one of how many people were enrolled the first day of school, and how many people graduated,” Burke said. "Some people that enrolled in that first class had, you know, no high school credits. And so, they need that entire four years' worth of education. And some people were one class away from their diploma.”
Cierra Westmoreland, 32, will have three more terms of high school classes to complete her requirements. Westmoreland dropped out of East High School early in her high school career, partly due to what she called her “firecracker” temper."
“So (when) I went to school, I had an attitude problem,” said Westmoreland. “Say something smart, I’m blowing off. I was a little fighter. I had a problem with fighting.”
Westmoreland tried online school, but she was easily distracted by friends and social media. She said it was her two sons, one 12, the other 8, who changed her attitude. They motivate each other, she said.
“My baby be like, ‘Oh mama, I can do your reading for you’ or ‘I got this,'" she said. "It's just cute. You see them trying to help me with my work and stuff, so I love it.”
Childcare hasn’t been a problem for Westmoreland, but Burke said it’s the challenge they most often hear about from their students.
“Having to be the caregiver for children or even other family members is a major barrier to a lot of adults pursuing opportunities like a high school diploma or any other career advancement opportunities,” Burke said
The Excel Center currently has a temporary home on the campus of Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri. They’ve been holding virtual classes since World Cup activities have tied up movement around town this summer.
They are in the process of pursuing a more permanent home, something Burke believes will increase access for many prospective students.
“I will conservatively say next year," she said, "And once we are in that permanent location, (our plan is to) offer free on-site childcare for the children of our students.”
