Congratulations to the 88 students recognized during the 2026 High School Equivalency (HSE) Graduation ceremony!

The ceremony, held on the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES campus Thursday evening, celebrated graduates of the BOCES Consortium of Continuing Education (BCCE) HSE programs, provided through an adult education partnership between MOBOCES and OHM BOCES.

Graduates included HSE diploma recipients from the National External Diploma Program (NEDP) and the HSE Exam and Regents Exam Pathways, both provided through BCCE ACCESS sites located in Utica, Rome and Oneida.

HSE diploma recipients Sara Donlon, Mikayla Gadz and Dee Dee Mashburn Brown each served as graduate speakers during the ceremony, reflecting on their unique journeys and thanking their families and program staff in helping the class achieve their goals.

“We proved that resilience isn’t the absence of hardship — it is the choice to keep moving forward, despite it,” Donlon shared in her speech, which was read on her behalf as she was unable to attend the ceremony. “To the class of 2026, congratulations! We faced the storms, we kept our focus, and we made it.”

“For some of us, we have accomplished something we never imagined we could, but here we are surrounded by those who never stopped believing in us,” said Gadz. “To my fellow graduates, let us take a moment to reflect on our journeys. We have grown in knowledge, character and embarked on new adventures. Congratulations to the class of 2026!”

“We’re here, we made it, congratulations to all of us,” Mashburn Brown exclaimed as she addressed her classmates. “We had our days where we thought we wouldn’t make it, but we kept on showing up and kept on going. When life throws curveballs, keep on swinging.”

The complete list of graduates, listed by program, can be found below. Additional photos of the ceremony can also be viewed on our Facebook page.

National External Diploma Program:

Tania Baptista

Jesse Brown

Alaysa Burgdoff

Israel Cabello Zuniga

Brianna Chrystie

Maria Collazo

Kassandra Colon

Holly Craner

Dominique DeBella

Holly Delong

Sara Donlon

Courtney Fargnoli

Maria C. Garcia Ozuna

Tammy Gilmore

Fatima Halkic

Regina Hughes

Mustafa Kareem

Sabreen Kareem

Claudia Lamadrid Gutierrez

Michael Lanaux

Gladys Lindsey

Ah Ze Ma

Lisalle McGinnis

Gabriella Myers

Natasha Neal

Mabel Nelson-Dziwornu

Danielle Patterson

Mirella Perez-Rodriguez

Ashley Rosario

Ronnie Sewell, Jr.

Dallas R. Skinner

Gwendolyn Stewart

Kenzie Szablewski

Yvonne Taverez Cardona

Theresa Weston

Dee-Asia T. Whitely

Hali Wood

 

HSE Exam and Regents Exam Pathways:

Aye Aung

Daniel Bailey

Christopher Baltazar

Chanti Bandrosky

McCartney Becraft

Delisanette Brito

Cierra Browning

Frankie Candiano

Beth Charles

Dominic Cordero

Damian Correa III

Kyle Dobson

Shade Duncan

Rebecca Dutcher

Johnna Finch

Mikayla Gadz

Rachael P. Galusha

Miguel Gomez

Eulanda Gore

Austin Hannafon

Vanesse Helligas

Endra Holliman

Yolanda Interiano

MiKayla May Johnson

Carmelo Joubert

David Kittrell

Mohebo La

Pheonix Lee

Dominick Liddiard

Melania Lott-Urich

Connie Martin

Anthony Martinez

Dee Dee Mashburn Brown

Cameron Morris

John Motley

Guokguok Nguoth

Rahim Osman

Sara Perez

Nathan Perkins

Helena Pfeiffer

Lorena Rivera-Colon

Siul Rodriguez

Stephanie Rogers-Pomichter

Zachary Rose

Anastasia Ryan

Madeline Sierson

Arianna Smith

Lillian Stoltzfus

Rashely Valdez

Tabitha Weston

Cass Williams