21 students earn degrees in summer session
21 SFPS students earn degrees over summer
Lucia Vega began to cry as her son Hugo Caraveo Vega stood up to receive his diploma. She was proud of him, she said, and he would serve as a role model for his three younger siblings.
“I couldn’t do it, but he did,” she said after the Capital High School senior took the graduation walk.
Caraveo Vega was among several seniors from Santa Fe Public Schools who had too few credits to graduate with their classmates in May but completed additional course work this summer so they could earn their high school diplomas.
The grads participated in a Wednesday morning event at the district’s Educational Services Center to honor their achievements.
But not all 21 of Wednesday’s graduates were students who fell behind. Carmen Carretero Y Martinez, 16, went to summer school classes and graduated two years early because she wants to get a head start on college — and life. She plans to study architecture at
The University of New Mexico this fall.
Graduation day, she said, “is one of the most important days of my life.”
In what will likely be his last public appearance in Santa Fe, Superintendent Joel Boyd — who is leaving the district in August to work in the private sector — oversaw the graduation ceremony, which drew about 100 supporters, family members and friends.
“Whether you graduate in the spring or summer, guess what?” Boyd told the graduates. “Your future employer does not care. Your future college does not care.
“You did it with grit. … You’re ready to hit the world running.”
Of the 21 seniors, 13 were from Santa Fe High, seven from Capital High and one from Engage Santa Fe, a program designed to give students who dropped out of high school a second chance at earning a diploma.
Lexus Romero was the sole Engage Santa Fe graduate, and she wore Engage’s new purpleand-green robe to celebrate the occasion. She is only the third graduate to earn a degree through Engage since it opened in the autumn of 2014. She said the program put her back on track after she had given up and dropped out of Santa Fe High during her freshman year.
“I was lazy,” she said of her decision to drop out. Asked what she plans to do next, she said she might consider going into law enforcement.
“I like doing exciting things that give you a rush,” Romero said.
The ceremony included a brief address by Santa Fe High teacher Barbara Gerber, who was honored earlier this year as one of the district’s seven Teachers Who Inspire for 2016.
Gerber told the students to apply meaning to all of their achievements. “I hope you look in the mirror every day and say, ‘I’m proud of myself and this life is good.’ ”
Veronica García, who will begin serving as the district’s interim superintendent Aug. 15, also briefly spoke, urging the graduates to encourage their younger friends to stay the course and graduate from high school.