An aspiring businesswoman, a future soldier, a student who had found a lack of support at her previous school, and the first member of a Samoan family to earn an American high school diploma — all were celebrated Thursday by a Bethel Acceleration Academy “Grad Caravan.”

Celina Barrios and Luis Mitra didn’t take the traditional route to earning their high school diplomas. Nor the fast route. And certainly not the easy one.

You wouldn’t know it from his 1,000-watt smile, but Stanley Cezalien has seen more than his share of trouble. The Haitian native lost family members in the devastating 2010 earthquake, grieved the unrelated deaths of his father and baby sister, and followed his mother to Florida only to find he...

Alison Hansen has always had a way with numbers. But the Bethel Acceleration Academy content coach doesn’t just teach students how to master their math.

Kelly Bolanos is on a roll. A high school diploma in hand, college credits to her name and, soon, a career that feeds her passion for nurturing young children.

For many, if not all, the 25 young women and men who graduated on January 21, a high school diploma once seemed a dream beyond their reach. But with perseverance, grit and support from the educators at St. Lucie Acceleration Academy, they realized that dream and strode into their brighter futures....