On Wednesday, May 17, 76 Gwinnett Tech students walked across the commencement stage to become GED graduates, many of whom reached the milestone only after overcoming great adversity.
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One such student is 28-year-old Daisha Lewis, who at age 14 was diagnosed with a rare, life-threatening eye cancer and had to later withdraw from Shiloh High School in Snellville for out-of-state medical treatment, the college wrote in a press release.
After homeschooling, Lewis was eventually accepted into University of California-Berkeley, but couldn’t fulfill the appropriate graduation requirements to walk with her class.
Years (and three children) later, Lewis chose to earn her GED, citing her children as inspiration.
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“I want them to know that no matter what happens to you in life, if you have breath in your body, you have to try,” she said.
Lewis was accepted into UC-Berkeley again as well as the Atlanta Institute of Music & Media and plans to begin online courses at UC-Berkeley next month and later, take courses at the Atlanta school to fulfill her lifelong dream of paying it forward by teaching music and art to children in impoverished neighborhoods.
“If my testimony and this giant eye patch can help someone else, I’m all for it,” she said.
