Never be afraid to be great.
That’s the advice from the commencement speaker to graduates of the Adult Education program at the Lincoln Center Auditorium on Wednesday night.
Superintendent Greg Upham told the graduates that means they will need to decide if fear will drive them away or if they’re going to take a shot at an opportunity.
More than 250 graduated with about 90 going through the ceremony.
Each graduate has overcome a challenge and adult education has been an important part of their lives.
“It was exciting,” said Chyrel Garding, one of four students to give a testimonial at the graduation. “It was definitely an accomplishment. I don’t know if sometimes I’m even aware of what a big deal it was. But it definitely was a big deal. I’ve been in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. And this is one of the first things I wanted to do when i got sober.”
“I’ve gone through many GED programs,” said Seth Yazzie. “And I just stayed consistent. Even though I felt like a failure, I just kept coming. I really wanted to make my wife proud. I learned a lot from skateboarding. Fall hard, get back up, do it again. Just applied it to education and now I’ve got my GED.”
Yazzie has plans to go into business with his wife, while Garding works at the Rimrock Foundation.
