As audience members cheered for graduates of the Mountain View-Los Altos Adult Education Program on Friday night, Karla Hernandez, who just earned her GED, spotted something surprising in the audience: her boyfriend holding up a sign which read, “Karla, will you marry me?”
Wearing her shiny yellow cap and gown, she rushed to the back of Mountain View High School’s auditorium to embrace her new fiancée, 19-year-old Jose Ruiz. The couple has a 1-year-old son, and Hernandez, 18, left Los Altos High School as a sophomore when she became pregnant.
Earning her GED and caring for her baby was not easy.
“Some of the time, I had to have him next to me crying the whole time while I was studying,” she said.
Now, Hernandez hopes to attend De Anza College and study to become a fashion designer.
Though this was the first marriage proposal in the history of Adult Ed’s graduation, Hernandez’s story is not unique. Many of the students who graduated last Friday night have young children and work multiple jobs while attending classes to earn their General Educational Development (GED) or high school diploma.
The Adult Ed program through the Mountain View-Los Altos School District offers preparation classes for students to pass all five components of the GED test, and also has an independent study program for students who wish to complete their high school graduation requirements to receive a diploma.
On June 2, Adult Ed graduated 35 students with a diploma and 39 with a GED. The student body is international, with members from Mexico, Laos, Colombia and Ghana.
Celia Bussey, 25, had made it her goal to earn her GED so she could graduate on June 2, which is the anniversary of her father’s death. She had already completed high school in Lima, Peru, but wanted to learn English and become familiar with American history. After meeting and marrying Brian Bussey, an American soldier from Kentucky who was working in Lima, she traveled to the United States two and a half years ago.
But immediately after her arrival, her husband, who specializes in bomb disposal, was sent off to Iraq for six months. Alone and without any knowledge of English, she faced a difficult adjustment which caused her to want to return to school.
“I’ve always postponed my education for different circumstances in my life, but this time was different,” she said.
Bussey is now fluent in English and said she owes it to Sharon Freitas, her teacher at Adult Ed, for helping her pass the test to receive her GED.
“She is a wonderful woman. She always told us, ‘Yes, you can do it,'” Bussey said. “Sometimes I didn’t believe in myself and she said, ‘Go for it.'”
A recipient of a Mountain View-Los Altos Adult Education staff scholarship, Bussey hopes to continue her education and become a veterinarian.
Though the modest Freitas gives her students all of the credit for earning their GEDs, she said it was “deeply, deeply satisfying” to watch them cross the stage in their caps and gowns. She has taught the GED class at Adult Ed for 15 years, and said that she loves it so much that she “wouldn’t go back” to teaching at a traditional school.
Her students have ranged in age from 18 to 81, and Frietas believes the GED program gives those students an opportunity they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
“It’s a second chance for people,” she said.
This is especially true for Joe Fisher, a 1998 graduate of the GED program who came back to speak at the graduation ceremony. Fisher, 25, recently found out that he was accepted to UC Berkeley with a $10,000 scholarship.
He is the first alum to return to speak at a graduation, and he told his compelling story to the audience, beginning with difficult life events and his spotty attendance at a series of continuation high schools, and ending with his earning a 3.9 GPA at Chabot College in Hayward. He is now a strong advocate of interdisciplinary education — for education’s sake, he says.
“When I first went to Berkeley, I felt a sense of destination, like this is where I belong,” Fisher said. “I realized I wasn’t satisfied to work just to work another day.”
When Fisher told the audience of the recent news he received from Berkeley, he was met with loud cheers and applause. The graduates, for whom the road to finishing high school was not simple or easy, hugged each other after the ceremony and revealed the sense of pride they felt at their accomplishments.
“I finally did it!” Hernandez said, beaming.
E-mail Molly Tanenbaum at mtanenbaum@mv-voice.com held to same high standards, must pass exit exam
