MOSES LAKE — With her Moses Lake School District Digital Learning Center diploma in hand, Anahi Zamora said it had been a challenge. 

“I thought I wasn’t going to make it,” Zamora said. “But I did it.” 

Her classmate Yarixi Silva juggled her classes and a job and earned the Seal of Biliteracy along with her diploma.   

“We did it,” Silva said. 

Student speaker Aaron Martinez Garza said he had to make the choice to get his education back on track – and it was a tough road, but the right one. Eventually that led him to the DLC. 

“I transferred to digital to continue my change, and digital worked. If I hadn't made that sacrifice (and) made changes, and if I hadn't left my comfort zone, I wouldn't be here today, standing with my class,” he said. “Even though my story is unique to me, we gather here today to acknowledge and congratulate each other for the grand accomplishment, because we all have our own story of how much we've grown over the years for enduring and facing hardships.” 

Class speaker Camila Vasquez Vega said one of the lessons she learned in high school was not to let uncertainty hold her back. 

“If I'm being completely honest, like many of you, when looking back on high school, I saw that there were endless possibilities on what I could have done but did. I always thought I'd have time to do them later, but I never made later come,” she said. “I've always been afraid to put myself out there, to take risks, and to make things happen on my own, and I'm sure many of you have felt the exact same way. And now, as I stand here on the precipice of adulthood, I realize that now is the time to take action and actually do something. Now is the later for all of us.” 

She decided, among other things, to take classes at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center, she said.  

Brandon Byers, director of alternative learning for the Moses Lake School District, said that while the Class of 2026 took a different route to graduation, and in some ways, they benefited from it.  

“You learned self-advocacy, you learned your own resourcefulness, you learned how to look at a roadblock and say, ‘Yeah, we can find another way through this.’ There's profound value in a structured pathway, but there's an entirely different kind of wisdom gained when you learn how to chart a course new for yourself,” Byers said.  

New graduate Irvin Valdez said he’s not sure what he plans to do after high school, but he has made a decision about one thing.  

“I’m going to be a risk-taker,” he said.  

    A graduate snaps a selfie as he turns her tassel during MLSD Digital Learning Center graduation Wednesday.
  

    A graduate holds his diploma for everyone to see during MLSD Digital Learning Center graduation.
  

    Having earned her diploma, a MLSD Digital Learning Center graduate shows it off.