{"id":248427,"date":"2017-03-17T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T20:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=248427"},"modified":"2017-03-17T06:00:30","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T20:00:30","slug":"10-graduate-daok-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/10-graduate-daok-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"10 graduate from Da\u2019ok Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"
Seven of ten graduates for Da\u2019ok Academy High School class of 2017 posing with Public School System Alternative Education Program director Felisa Brel (center). From left to right: Saipan Southern High School\u2019s Sonia Isaac and Junie Pangelinan, Kagman High School\u2019s Jerica Sekool and Rolly Roppul, and Marianas High School\u2019s Justin Paul Blas, Isabel Ilo, and Daimeionne Greer. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Graduates of the fourth high school in the CNMI Public School System are overjoyed as their tassel went from right to left. <\/p>\n

The 10 graduates of Da\u2019ok Academy High School, which uses the alternative education program, or AEP, are ready to face a new set of challenges as they went through their commencement exercises yesterday. <\/p>\n

Felisa Brel, AEP director, said the AEP program helps high school students secure their high school diploma. The AEP acts as a last resort for students who lack credits, are constantly absent, or on the verge of expulsion. <\/p>\n

\u201cBefore their schools kick them out and they never get back into the system because of their age, attendance, and their academic performance, they send them to Da\u2019ok Academy and here, we try to save them and work with them to improve those three areas,\u201d Brel said.<\/p>\n

The 10 that graduated yesterday comprise the sixth batch to have graduated from the program. <\/p>\n

Most students in this program graduate earlier because, according to Brel, \u201cmost students only need one to three classes to graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since being established back in 2011, Brel shared that Da\u2019ok has had over 90 graduates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe largest number of graduates we\u2019ve had [in a class] is 15,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Da\u2019ok Academy student Rolly C. Roppul told Saipan Tribune he got into the program \u201cbecause of my delinquencies. \u2026 I was sent here to Da\u2019ok.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roppul did not resent his principal for her decision to send him to Da\u2019ok Academy, saying he was happy and really liked studying in Da\u2019ok.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gained a lot of values here. I learned a lot more in terms of education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roppul said he is planning to pursue a criminal justice degree.<\/p>\n

Board of education vice chair Janice A. Tenorio congratulated the students for pursuing their diploma and told them to \u201cdo it because [you] could make it all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education Commissioner Cynthia Deleon Guerrero said: \u201c[The students] made the choice to return and pursue their diplomas. That is what\u2019s really important because many of our students, like all of us, have challenges in life that nobody really knows about. [These students] took it one step further to get that diploma and I am really proud of them for that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Besides Da\u2019ok Academy, the other high schools in the CNMI are Saipan Southern, Kagman High, and Marianas High.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graduates of the fourth high school in the CNMI Public School System are overjoyed as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":248431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[16000,16001,16002,16003],"class_list":["post-248427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-local-news","tag-academy-high-school","tag-aep","tag-felisa-brel","tag-justin-paul-blas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}