For these grads it's a good finish to a fresh start

Adam Malicay stands six-foot-four and goes by the nickname "Smash."

He gives the outward impression of one not to be trifled with and yet it was his soft side, the love he bestowed upon his struggling nephew that earned heartfelt applause on Thursday at the Sonoma County Office of Education's Alternative Education Program graduation.

"I was a bad kid raised in a bad neighborhood," graduate Mariano Mesquita told the crowd at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building in thanking the uncle that took him in and set him straight.

"He's a wonderful man," Mesquita said. "I have transformed into something. I don't know what to call it, I guess a young man."

Thursday's ceremony marked the end of the high school journey for about 75 graduates who either got diplomas, passed the GED exam or completed requirements for a certificate of completion through the county office of education's alternative program designed for students who haven't succeeded in more traditional school settings.

Many of the student speeches focused not on the graduates, but on the family support that brought students through rough times.

"I had to be tough on him, really stern," Malicay said of the 16-year-old drug-using boy who walked through his door about two years ago after being kicked out of another family home. "But it paid off. It all works in the end."

Thursday night also marked the graduations for about 500 students at Analy, El Molino and Laguna high schools in the West Sonoma County district, as well as approximately nine graduates from Mesa, an alternative high school in Santa Rosa.

Today marks the biggest night of the graduation season, as more than 2,280 students are expected to earn diplomas from the Santa Rosa City Schools high schools, as well as Cloverdale High and Petaluma's Casa Grande high schools.

But on Thursday, in Santa Rosa, the afternoon belonged to students like Lourdes Vazquez, who became a mother during her high school career, spent time in juvenile hall and bounced between alternative programs until she found a fit at Adera High School.

"To some people, we're all juvenile delinquents, teen parents or kids with behavior problems, but we're not, we're confused teens," she said after accepting both a Sonoma County Board of Education and Bridging the Doyle scholarships.

"A lot of people judge us because of our actions, they say we will all be dropouts but we all prove that wrong because I was a juvenile delinquent, I am a teen mom and here I am graduating. We all are," she said.

"So whether we got here by choice or mistake, we did it - we took the first step to the rest of our lives and that's graduating."