GED Stories

WINCHESTER — Friday night’s graduation at Umpqua Community College had all the usual suspects. Caps, gowns, diplomas, “Pomp and Circumstance,” proud families and friends. Amid the ceremony and encouragement to face the future, there were stories. The audience heard just three from the 173 students who had earned an adult high school diploma or GED.

Take Kendra Bay. She paused at the edge of the stage and posed with her high school diploma.

She earned it this year at the Woolley Center.

“I never thought this day would come,” she said after the ceremony. “It really felt life-changing. It was like a big sigh of relief.”

Bay said she wanted to get her diploma but hadn’t found the right place. Today, at 19, she is a graduate.

“My goal for the future is to become an emergency room nurse and then while I’m working, go back to school to become an emergency room doctor,” she told the crowd at Jacoby Auditorium.

“I was carefree and rebellious,” she said. “I was definitely not a big fan of high school. I had never experienced teachers and staff that made such a great effort to reach out to me, whether it was for extra help on homework or a shoulder to cry on or someone to help me figure out life when it seemed nobody cared.

“It’s funny because most kids are more than happy to graduate and get far way from school, but I was thinking about going back to get my GED so I didn’t have to leave the Woolley Center,” she said.

Her mother, Letha Bay, couldn’t have been prouder.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said. “I was excited to see her walk across the stage.”

Lucinda Tallekpalek had control of her emotions during her speech until she saw her mother, Tammy Martin, crying.

Tallekpalek, 21, told the audience she dropped out of high school at 17 and started using drugs.

“I didn’t have an education to get a good job,” she said. She pumped gas and then started selling drugs.

“I started to become depressed and regretting that I dropped out of school,” she said. “I wanted to go back but by then it was too late, or so I thought.”

She moved in with her grandparents, who encouraged her to enroll in the Job Corps program. She took their advice and started the program in April.

“Within those nine months I have learned a lot more about myself and have more confidence and self-esteem,” she said.

She has her GED, certified nursing assistant’s certificate and phlebotomy certificate. She has another graduation ceremony in her future. She’s just three credits away from her high school diploma, and she’s planning to go to UCC this spring.

“She hit rock bottom and she called out,” Martin said. “I’m very proud of her.”

Micah Hodgman, 36, never had a formal education. He traveled the world with his father, a World War II veteran of the British Royal Navy. He had a good job in England but moved to Roseburg to be close to his mother after his father died.

“I learned that without a diploma or GED, I could not pursue a better career,” he said.

“I believed that it would take me over a year, but has taken me nine months,” he said, ” and I am living proof that perseverance and a determined attitude pays off.”

His uncle Jeff Siegel and mother, Rochelle Mobley-Smith, and fiance, Whitney Meacham, were waiting to greet Hodgman after the ceremony.

“I think it’s great,” Siegel said. “I think it’s an excellent opportunity for him to better himself.”

“What an inspiration,” Mobley-Smith added.

“I’m just very proud of all his accomplishments,” Meacham said.

UCC President Blaine Nisson said he always enjoys the graduates’ speeches at the adult high school diploma and GED graduation.

“I wish you much success in your future,” he said. “You deserve to be proud of yourself, and surely your family and friends are proud of you.”