In February of this year, Mariana and her family received heartbreaking news that would change their lives. Mariana’s father, Julio Garcia, was found to have two tumors in his lung. Her father was in Arkansas at the time but then went to Mexico to receive further treatment.

This devastating news lead Garcia to make a life-changing decision.

“I’m graduating early because my dad has cancer and so I want to go and spend time with him and make sure that he’s well and I can help,” Garcia said.

Learning about her father’s illness, Garica came to the decision to graduate early, and thankfully she already had many of the credits she needed. Garcia praised a few of the administration for helping her get through this tough time.

“Mrs. Hatch was really helpful and then Dr. Griep was really understanding and then Mrs. Tisher was really helpful to get this all approved. She really wrote everything out to make sure I graduated with all the credits and I wasn’t getting behind on all my stuff,” Garcia said.

Shannon Tisher, the Assistant Superintendent, was very helpful when assisting Garcia in her efforts to graduate early.

“Springdale personalizes the learning for each student and in some qualifying circumstances, the student may petition to graduate early if all district graduation requirements are met and it is in the best interest of the student,” Tisher said.

Tisher and the other administration deemed Garica’s circumstances as qualifying for her to graduate early. Along with help from Tisher, Principal Paul Griep was there to help out as well.

“Through a conversation with the student and his/her parent, we determine as a team whether or not early graduation is the best option,” Griep said.

With Garcia graduating early, there is an opportunity for her to miss out on a possibly evenetful third year of high school, but she has other thoughts.

“I was already friends with a lot of the seniors so I think I’m kind of like fitting in more in a way. Now I think that I’ve created a stronger bond with my junior friends so we spend every moment together that we can,” Garcia said.

However, Garcia isn’t the only student graduating early this year, senior Alyssa Hash is as well.

“I am graduating early to go to college early and avoid unnecessary classwork. If I had stayed another year, then I would have had to take another round of core classes which were unnecessary to graduate,” Hash said.

Garcia and Hash will both be skipping their junior  year and have similar ideals when it comes to feeling like they are missing out.

“I don’t feel like I’m missing out. Quite honestly, I feel like I will enjoy the college atmosphere more,” Hash said.

Both Garcia and Hash gave recommendations as to whether or not students should graduate.

“If you know what you want to do,” Garcia said.

And Hash left some words of wisdom for those who are considering graduating a year early.

“I do recommend graduating early to students who feel they meet all of the class requirements with good grades and want to get a head start college or their career,” Hash said. “If you really enjoy the social aspect of high school then I don’t recommend it because you might feel you are missing out.”