Representing a colorful mix of cultures and backgrounds, A-B Tech’s high school equivalency and adult high school 2026 graduates gathered with their families and A-B Tech staff on June 4 in the A-B Tech/Mission Health Conference Center to celebrate their achievement in a touching graduation ceremony.
This year’s ceremony marked an important milestone with inclusion of the first graduates from the college’s Spanish language high school program, which began in 2025. More than 100 high school equivalency and adult high school students graduated the combined programs this year, including 11 students from the Spanish program. Of those, there were 35 students total at the June 4 ceremony.
Commencement speaker Deja Benton from Operation Gateway, a previous graduate of the High School Equivalency program, is now Director of Operations at the local nonprofit, which works to support formerly incarcerated people. Benton shared her personal story, which touched on mental health struggles and her own lived experience with incarceration. She encouraged everyone not to let past wounds or mistakes get in the way of their dreams.
“(They) may be part of your story, but they don’t have to be the end of your story ,” she said. “Your future is determined by what you do next, not by what you did yesterday ... The person you’re meant to become is waiting on the other side of the thing you’re most afraid of.”
Other speakers were A-B Tech President John Gossett; Director of Transitional Studies Kenna Sommer; and student speakers Darlene Little, Orberlin Habana Garcia, Iris Nohemi Longinos Garcia, Maria Lucia Hernandez, Cherie Ostmann and Ryden Konz. Each student spoke of their personal journey to completing their degree and personal challenges they met with along the way. Three speakers delivered their addresses in Spanish for the first time.
Orberlin Habana Garcia, also a speaker, was the first student to finish the Spanish language High School Equivalency Program last September. Habana Garcia, 38, a teacher and human rights advocate, immigrated from his native Mexico to America in 2022. He signed up for English classes at A-B Tech a couple of years later and, after expanding his language skills, decided to complete his high school diploma in 2025. Orberlin juggled classes along with a job as a server, which he said helped him work on his English skills. He delivered his speech at the ceremony in both English and Spanish. “Along the way,” he said, “I’ve learned more math and language skills, but most importantly, I learned the best learning comes outside your comfort zone.”
Iris Nohemi Longinos Garcia, 40, spoke of how she came from Mexico to the United States 19 years ago without even a suitcase. The single mother had completed high school in Mexico, but also wanted a degree in her new country. She took A-B Tech’s program multiple times, but struggled to juggle it along with long shifts as a house cleaner and being mom to a teenage son. Seeing her son win a scholarship to college recently gave her the push she needed to continue toward her own goal. She enrolled in the new Spanish language HSE program in 2025 and passed her exams this spring. “I wanted to be a role model for (my son),” she said.
Pictured in photo above: Some of the students and instructors from the Spanish-language high school program.
Learn more about A-B Tech’s High School Equivalency programs at abtech.edu/adult-ed.