"The economy is healing but we're not feeling it yet," said Haney, who graduated from Northeast High School in 2001.
Since then, he's worked in magic shops, pumped gas, and been a salesman, but he hasn't gotten his life going.
A self-professed geek and tireless video gamer, the unemployed Haney has $6 in the bank and is $2,000 behind on his rent to his landlord, a former boss of his who hasn't the heart to evict him.
"My parents help me out with money," Haney said. "I feel guilty."
Haney, currently on food stamps, said he never had the money for community college but recognizes the power of a degree.
"Employers use college as a weeding-out device," he said. "It doesn't matter what the degree is in."
And, he added, without a diploma, "good luck meeting women."
There's a way teachers and principals talk to you in high school that pumps you up and sends you into the world thinking you'll get somewhere, Haney said, adding, "The message at graduation is, you can be anything. It inspires hope. But in the end, that's all you've got. Where are the good jobs?"
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A race thing?
Jesus Diaz sat in a friend's apartment in a ragged housing project in Camden, wondering how his life will turn out.
The son of a preacher, Diaz, 22, said he grew up fearing God, but he's more worried about the attitudes of employers.
"I think it's a race thing," said Diaz, 22, a Woodrow Wilson High School dropout. Employers "don't trust Hispanic men or black men and won't hire them."
"But a lot of females are getting jobs. Bosses think men are dangerous, or don't take jobs seriously."
Diaz believes he's not getting the opportunity to sell clothes in mall stores because he's Latino. "They want a specific look for workers," he said. "The reality is they're more into Caucasians."
Diaz, whose family moved to the Pocono Mountains a few years back, joined them and worked for a while in a grocery near their home. But the job didn't last and he returned to Camden to live with his grandmother and to earn his GED, which he's scheduled to get next month.
Grateful to his family - "They were always there for me," Diaz said - he believes it's time to stand up on his own.
"I can't depend on them all my life," he said. He hopes to find work as a medical assistant but he knows he needs to get training.
Asked whom he holds responsible for his lot, Diaz said, "It's 50-50. You can put the blame on the world and on yourself. Everything is crumbling, but I believe there's a way to make it. It won't come fast, though."
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Since then, he's worked in magic shops, pumped gas, and been a salesman, but he hasn't gotten his life going.
A self-professed geek and tireless video gamer, the unemployed Haney has $6 in the bank and is $2,000 behind on his rent to his landlord, a former boss of his who hasn't the heart to evict him.
"My parents help me out with money," Haney said. "I feel guilty."
Haney, currently on food stamps, said he never had the money for community college but recognizes the power of a degree.
"Employers use college as a weeding-out device," he said. "It doesn't matter what the degree is in."
And, he added, without a diploma, "good luck meeting women."
There's a way teachers and principals talk to you in high school that pumps you up and sends you into the world thinking you'll get somewhere, Haney said, adding, "The message at graduation is, you can be anything. It inspires hope. But in the end, that's all you've got. Where are the good jobs?"
___
A race thing?
Jesus Diaz sat in a friend's apartment in a ragged housing project in Camden, wondering how his life will turn out.
The son of a preacher, Diaz, 22, said he grew up fearing God, but he's more worried about the attitudes of employers.
"I think it's a race thing," said Diaz, 22, a Woodrow Wilson High School dropout. Employers "don't trust Hispanic men or black men and won't hire them."
"But a lot of females are getting jobs. Bosses think men are dangerous, or don't take jobs seriously."
Diaz believes he's not getting the opportunity to sell clothes in mall stores because he's Latino. "They want a specific look for workers," he said. "The reality is they're more into Caucasians."
Diaz, whose family moved to the Pocono Mountains a few years back, joined them and worked for a while in a grocery near their home. But the job didn't last and he returned to Camden to live with his grandmother and to earn his GED, which he's scheduled to get next month.
Grateful to his family - "They were always there for me," Diaz said - he believes it's time to stand up on his own.
"I can't depend on them all my life," he said. He hopes to find work as a medical assistant but he knows he needs to get training.
Asked whom he holds responsible for his lot, Diaz said, "It's 50-50. You can put the blame on the world and on yourself. Everything is crumbling, but I believe there's a way to make it. It won't come fast, though."
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