Scottie Te’o looks back at his early struggles in school and figures it was a matter of concentrating.

He couldn’t.

And, really, who could?

The youngest of six children, Te’o watched as his single mother struggled to make ends meet. The family moved frequently, often from one Waipahu apartment to another, once to Waianae for a couple of years.

“I was going through a lot of things at home,” said Te’o, now 26. “We were moving a lot because of financial problems, and I was always worried about my family. I was always worried about where we were going next.”

Surrounded by kids going through the same types of struggles, it wasn’t long before Te’o became enmeshed in a lifestyle of alcohol and gangs and violence.

Te’o was 15 when his sister gave birth to a son. Te’o, then a repeat sophomore at Waipahu High School, knew his sister was dealing with her own personal problems, so he dropped out of school to watch his young nephew.

“I didn’t think I had a future,” Te’o says. “It was hard to think about goals. I just thought about today and tomorrow.”

Te’o attended Waipahu School for Adults three separate times, trying to earn a GED, but found himself uncomfortable in his surroundings, unable to concentrate and overwhelmed by his past failures.

Finally, with both hope and desperation, Te’o called Adult Friends for Youth, a nonprofit organization that takes a therapeutic approach to helping high-risk youth overcome violence, substance abuse, learning disabilities, anti-social behavior and other challenges.

Te’o had seen other relatives succeed in the program and was hopeful that he could turn his life around through AFY’s program to help high-school dropouts earn a diploma.

It wasn’t easy. On the first day, Te’o surveyed the class and saw old rivals from other communities, people with whom he’d had a history of bad blood.

At first Te’o sat back and observed, sizing up the room. But as the days and weeks passed, he came to a powerful realization.

“What helped me to mature was realizing that we were all there to achieve our goals,” he said. “We had our ups and downs, but at AFY we learned to become a family. I got to know them and learn their stories.”

Secure in his surroundings and empowered by the emotional and academic support he received from AFY staff, Te’o came to a second important realization: “Hey, I’m actually learning.”

By the time he finished the program, Te’o had blossomed into a conscientious student who spoke with confidence and reached out to help his classmates. At the recent AFY graduation ceremony, Te’o was called on to speak on behalf of the class. Next spring he will attend Honolulu Community College.

“Everybody comes across challenges,” Te’o said. “What matters is how you deal with them.”

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.