Daily High students remember the past, look to the future
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Stories of making good on second chances took the stage for the annual graduation ceremony for Allan F. Daily High School students Wednesday.
Before making his way to the stage at First United Methodist Church’s Carlson Hall, Hovik Grigorian talked about the academic mistakes he made at Glendale High.
But now, after two years at the continuation school, he says he’s looking forward to a career in mechanical engineering and opening his own car shop.
“I messed up a little bit, but I came here and fixed everything,” Grigorian said. “Now, I’m done.”
About 100 Daily students were a part of this year’s graduating class and nearly all shared a similar story of struggling early on in high school.
In his commencement speech, George Georgiev said he regretted not taking his studies more seriously when he was younger and remembers how scared he was to tell his parents he had to go to Daily High, especially with rumors of troublemaking kids.
But those concerns were quickly laid to rest.
“There’s a lot of teachers here that devote their time and will pressure their students till that last moment,” Georgiev said.
The diploma he and his classmates would walk away with puts them on the same page as graduating seniors everywhere, he said.
“There’s no difference between us and a Beverly Hills child,” Georgiev said.
He plans on taking summer school at Glendale Community College.
Brenda Herrera was part of Re-ConnectED, a program at Daily that allowed her to work at her own pace.
She praised the small class sizes and teachers for going the extra mile.
“We were surrounded by teachers and staff that took personal interest in what we do,” she said. “The teachers aren’t just teachers, they are people we can turn to with any problem we faced.
But Herrera added that many like herself also had to overcome a lack of motivation and laziness; without that, getting this far would not have been possible.
“We finally completed what we set out to do,” Herrera said. “We stayed away from distractions and found our motivation and accomplished something that we thought we would never do.”