SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Degree New Dawn for Ex-Convict

Carolina Carranza couldn’t help crying as she hugged her son, Martin, after the joint graduation ceremony Tuesday for Capistrano Adult School and Serra Continuation High School.

Six years ago, her son’s future looked bleak. He was convicted of attempted murder in connection with a gang shooting in East Los Angeles, and spent the next five years in a juvenile facility.

But when Carranza was released last fall, he moved to Dana Point to finish the studies he started in prison. On Tuesday, he was the adult graduates’ featured speaker.

Thirty-five adults and 22 teen-agers graduated from the schools Tuesday. It was the first formal graduation ceremony in the schools’ histories, complete with caps and gowns, senior pictures, a string trio, a Marine Corps color guard and the playing of “Pomp and Circumstance.”

“I was involved in gangs at 13, what authorities would call ‘a hard-core gang member,’ ” Carranza, 22, said. “It wasn’t until I was in that prison cell 5 1/2 years ago that I was serious about education. I started getting A’s and Bs, and I would rush to my teacher because . . . I never thought I would do well in school. ‘A’s and Bs’ became my nickname. I found out how easy it is.”

In prison, he got to within a year of graduation and he finished his studies at Capistrano Adult School.

Carranza, who will study electrical engineering at Saddleback College, credits his mother, who visited him weekly at the Chino juvenile facility, for his turnaround.

“I am really proud and happy,” she said. “I just hope he will keep going forward for as long as he can go.”

Most graduates of the adult school were high school dropouts who returned to classes. The continuation school graduates are teen-agers who, for personal, family or work reasons, could not function at one of the district’s traditional high schools.

Serra “is not a school for dropouts and substance abusers,” said Dana Lillard, a 17-year-old Mission Viejo resident who was the Serra graduates’ featured speaker. She said she came to Serra from Capistrano Valley High School because of family problems and graduated with a B-plus average.

Both schools’ graduates must take the same core classes--English, math and history--as students at traditional high schools, but they don’t have to take electives, such as music or art.

School officials announced last fall that there would be a formal ceremony in hopes that it would spur more students to graduate. It appears to have worked, especially at Serra--its 22 graduates was about twice the usual number.

“We wanted this ceremony to be a carrot, and to show the students that their graduation means something,” said Serra Principal Don Jeizy, who donned a tuxedo for Tuesday’s commencement.

In previous years, the adult and continuation school graduation was an informal lunchtime affair during which students were given their diplomas in a low-key style.

“Having a formal graduation meant a lot to the students,” said Mike Bursha, 17, a Laguna Niguel resident and Serra graduate who will go on to study architecture at Saddleback College. “It gave us something to shoot for.”

For Carranza, it was a day he once thought he would never see.

“Oh no, back (six years ago) I couldn’t imagine graduating,” he said. “When I went into prison I had a lot of hate and resentment. If I hadn’t gotten rid of that and taken responsibility for myself, I would not have gotten here today.”