A special commencement ceremony took place at BMO Stadium Monday honoring LAUSD students whose path to graduation was fraught with more than the typical high school woes.
As KNX News' Pete Demetriou reports, these graduates had to overcome not only the typical highs and lows of high school but also homelessness and other uncommon obstacles to reach graduate day.
Families shifted from temporary housing to living with relatives or an occasional motel—this is what 130 graduates from more than 50 high schools went through during their school years.
One student, Xavier Moreland, said once he had a stable home in L.A., he began to think about his future beyond school, learning life and career skills in the process.
"At first, I was going to major in Viticulture and Enology, but I ended up switching to majoring in hospitality. So that's opened up a lot more universities to go to," said Moreland.
Moreland credits his teachers and counselors for being his guiding lights, helping him navigate through the challenges and stabilize his life, instilling in him a vision for the future.
"One thing that I kept doing during my own experiences was dreaming. And that's the one thing that nobody was able to take away from me," Moreland said.
For him, Napa Valley Community College is just the next step toward fulfilling his dreams.
Another student, Matthew Mostellers, said when his father married someone else, all stability left his world.
"I was kicked out of my own home and forced to figure out life on my own right before I turned 18. So that was a very extreme challenge for me," Mostellers said.
Through this challenging time in his life, Mostellers said he learned to grow as a person, to be more responsible, and to "achieve things on my own."
Friends and family took him in temporarily, which gave him the breathing room to find a part-time job and make ends meet while managing a 3.97 GPA at Grant High School.
Now, he feels his future lies in helping others, saying, "I want to become a firefighter to help give out to my community and to help the people in need."
Mostellers said his journey through adversity has made him more mature. He advises other students going through hard times to find a path to their future, stay on it, and never give up on their dreams.
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Janet Johnson, another student helped by the Los Angeles Unified's Homeless Education Office, told KNX News she was able to make it through the last few years of school despite depression and insecurity thanks to an amazing teacher.
Johnson said, "Since graduating in 2024, we were the kids that started high school on online learning, and she's been my teacher for all four years, and she always told me that regardless of the things going on at home and regardless of my homeless situation that, I was going to do good in life and be good at whatever I wanted to. And that definitely kept me going."
Johnson said it felt like somebody had her back.
Johnson is headed for California State University, Channel Islands, this fall. Have been through psychological issues in her own life coupled with being raised with an autistic brother; she wants to learn more about early childhood development studies, which may lead to a career in youth counseling.
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