Last week, more than 1,000 students graduated from Pleasanton schools, but there are still several students in the district waiting for their graduation ceremony. Amador Valley Adult and Community Education will hold its graduation ceremony Tuesday, June 27, in the Amador Valley High School library, where 97 students will be honored.
“The graduation is a celebration of what our program brings to this community,” said Adult Education Principal Glen Sparks. “Hopefully, what we’re doing is part of the vocational solution to create people who are stronger in the workforce, and celebrate that you’re never too old to complete a high school diploma.”
Students are graduating from several different programs offered at the adult school. The largest group is students who completed their General Education Development (GED) certificate, of which there are 47 students. Most students in this program first take a course in preparation for the six-part test, which, although not a high school diploma, is treated by most employers as a satisfactory equivalent.
“In many cases, when adults look at their past transcripts and see they are many units away from their diploma, but they think they have the skills necessary, they go for a GED,” Sparks said.
The adult school does offer the option for adults, defined as anyone 18 or older, to receive their high school diploma by completing the necessary credits. There are three students graduating with their diploma at next week’s ceremony.
There are also two special programs that are relatively new to the district, the medical assistance program and the special education aide program, graduating 11 and 36 students, respectively. The medical assistance program trains students to work in the front and back offices of a medical office. The special education aide program is actually new this year and was created through a partnership between the special education department and Quality Behavioral Outcomes (QBO), a special education consulting organization.
“The goal is to help meet the needs for special education aides to help in class and be up on the skills necessary to work with a wide variety of special needs students,” Sparks said. “It is comprehensive training, and I’ve been told that it made special education services better because it widened the pool of people who are qualified.”
Pleasanton resident Lorraine Hetherington is one of this year’s graduates from the program, and she has already landed a job working for as an aide for the summer school class at Vintage Hills. For the school year, she’s signed up to be a substitute aide, and she’s been told that there will be plenty of work.
“Honestly, I don’t know what the graduation is–I’ve never been to it before,” Hetherington said. “I’m really looking forward to working, to getting a job doing what I was trained to do.”
Hetherington decided to pursue the program after her experience raising her oldest son, 17, who is autistic and her youngest son, 15, who has special needs. Having already gained a parent’s knowledge, Hetherington wanted to get the professional skills necessary to be able to help in the classroom.
“It feels great,” Hetherington said of completing her course. “I enjoyed the class a lot, and it was a very intense class. It just went really quick. There’s so much to learn that it could have gone even longer.”
The drive to pursue greater education goals is what brings most adults to adult education, Sparks said.
“I think it’s the joy of life-long learning, that it’s never too late to learn something,” Sparks said. “The older one gets, the more appreciation they have for education, where in some cases it may be taken for granted at a younger age. That’s why adults generally do well, because they’re excited and passionate about learning.”
