http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/middlesex/index.ssf?/base/news-3/119138802511320.xml&coll=1
Eleidie Torres was smoking marijuana at 9.
By the time she was 11, thanks to an older boy dealing drugs, the New Brunswick girl was snorting cocaine.
Rock-bottom came at the tender age of 14, when she was busted on drug possession charges and shipped to the county juvenile detention center. Her education had been interrupted, and she was effectively homeless.
Torres knew this was not where she wanted to be. She decided to do something with her life, enrolled at a public school for students with behaviorial disabilities, and sought treatment for drug addiction.
Two years later, she has a bright future nearly close enough to touch. Now 16 and a high school sophomore, she earns A's and B's, holds down a part-time job, and takes voice lessons. Torres also dreams of someday enrolling at The Julliard School in Manhattan.
Her hard work has not gone unnoticed. Today she will receive special recognition from the state Board of Education, which has named her New Jersey's student of the month. She will receive the award at a ceremony in Trenton.
"I was shocked," said Torres, who believed her past made her an unlikely candidate. "I'm still nervous."
In the audience in Trenton will be Shirley Camp, head teacher and education coordinator at the youth shelter where Torres lived after her arrest. At the time, Camp saw something special in her.
"I saw that she was a capable student. She was bright. I knew she could make something of herself," Camp said. "I knew she could turn her life around. I kept reinforcing that."
At Torres' school, Raritan Valley Academy in Piscataway, principal Tia LaPiana has designated today as "Eleidie Torres Day." Torres and her classmates will celebrate with cake and ice cream, and the school has dedicated a bulletin board in one of its main hallways to her.
"Eleidie is an excellent example of how providing special-needs students with the support they need allows them to be successful not only in school, but in life," LaPiana said.
It's a far cry from her entrance interview, for which Torres showed up in shackles. This was during her incarceration in the juvenile facility, and she was looking for a way out.
The road hasn't always been easy. Since arriving at Raritan Valley in 2006, Torres has attended a drug treatment program three times a week at Princeton House in Hamilton Township, and in April she relapsed with marijuana and cocaine.
"I was having family problems," Torres said. "I wanted to go back home, but my father wouldn't accept me because of the drugs."
Today, she lives in a Mercer County group home, but sees her mother once a month and speaks regularly with her father. He plans on attending the ceremony today.
Both her parents live in New Brunswick, where she grew up.
Torres has refocused her efforts on music and school. "I like to write poetry and songs. I like hip-hop and R&B," she said. Her favorite artists are Lumie Dee, Lil' Wayne and Evanescence of the rap and rock genres.
Torres, who has enjoyed singing and performing since she was little, studies classical voice at Westminster Choir College at Rider University in Lawrenceville. She has also applied to Middlesex County Arts High School at Middlesex County College.
For three to six hours each week she works in the school office, earning $7.50 an hour. Despite the part-time job and the hours committed to the drug program, Torres has maintained honor status at Raritan Valley, the highest award for behavior, since last school year.
Once Raritan Valley students reach and maintain honors status, they may return to their home school. Torres, however, said she wants to stay at Raritan Valley, which has 66 students enrolled from kindergarten to 12th grade.
"I love this school," she said.
Torres said she believes her experience proves young people with drug problems and brushes with the law can turn their lives around.
"I don't feel like I could be a role model, but I feel like people could learn from me," she said. "I feel that I am somebody and I want to go somewhere."
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