Diploma

Regina Friend will don her son's ceremonial cap Thursday morning and take footsteps that were supposed to be his. The mere idea of those steps gives her chills, but she will take them. Her only child worked 41/2 years to earn a diploma from Temple University, and she will collect it, proud as any other parent in the room. "He's not here to accept it," the Cockeysville resident said. "So as his mother, and I'm still his mother, I need to get it for him. " Last August, Roswell Friend — Dulaney High graduate, college athlete, selfless friend, soon-to-be Temple alum — went for a run over a Philadelphia bridge and never came back.

Amy Schumer can tell a story. Knowing how to craft a short narrative and make it pay off with a laugh has, after all, helped make her one of the hottest comedians on TV and the concert circuit these days. So, let the star of Comedy Central's “Inside Amy Schumer” explain how it came to be that she finished her work for a bachelor's degree in theater at Towson University in 2003 but didn't receive her diploma until 2007 - in the lobby of Baltimore's Lyric Opera House. “I say I graduated in 2003 from Towson, but that's not actually true,” the 31-year-old New-York-born performer says in a recent interview.

Howard Community College will hold its 23rd annual Diploma Recognition Ceremony at 3 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Smith Theater, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. The ceremony will recognize students who have earned a Maryland high school diploma in the past year through the college's Adult Basic Education programs. A reception for graduates, their friends and families will be held after the ceremony in the Kittleman Room of the English, Language and Business Building (ELB 100). Margaret Kahlor, director of media arts and HCC TV, will speak to the group of about 30 graduates.

Hundreds of Baltimore students and residents have had their high school completions hanging in limbo since the state transferred the General Education Development responsibilities to a new department, according to city and adult education officials. As a consequence, a program that was designed to fast-track a high school diploma for teens and adults is in some cases preventing them from having access to jobs and college enrollment, officials and students say. On Thursday, the City Council will hold a hearing to discuss the issues that city GED seekers have faced, such as an increase in wait times, since the service was moved from the state education department to the labor department in 2009.

The Maryland Adult External High School Diploma Program allows participants to take between six months and a year to earn a high school diploma. The program is self-paced and allows applicants to work at their own pace. The total cost is $200. Several information sessions will be held at the Community College of Baltimore County, Essex Campus at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays this month and next. The first of two evening sessions will take place at 6:30 tonight. Additional information sessions will be held at the CCBC Catonsville Campus starting Monday.

When Gregory Seward picked up his high school diploma last night, he ended an academic career that featured straight A's, quarterbacking the football team and playing on the school's lacrosse team with his younger brother.The 17-year-old athlete and honor student was one of 216 seniors who graduated from Hammond High School in Columbia during a ceremony at the Merriweather Post Pavilion."I enjoyed high school a lot but I'm ready to move on," said Greg, the son of Arthur and Gay Seward of King's Contrivance.

Amy Schumer can tell a story. Knowing how to craft a short narrative and make it pay off with a laugh has, after all, helped make her one of the hottest comedians on TV and the concert circuit these days. So, let the star of Comedy Central's “Inside Amy Schumer” explain how it came to be that she finished her work for a bachelor's degree in theater at Towson University in 2003 but didn't receive her diploma until 2007 - in the lobby of Baltimore's Lyric Opera House. “I say I graduated in 2003 from Towson, but that's not actually true,” the 31-year-old New-York-born performer says in a recent interview.

SHE HAS SEEN many Glenelg students cross the stage to receive Maryland high school diplomas in her 22 years as day custodian at Glenelg High School. Sunday was the day Eldine Angles made her own walk across the stage, stretched out her hand and received her diploma.Ms. Angles' stage was at Howard Community College in the 11th annual Diploma Recognition Ceremony. She achieved her goal by participating in the External Diploma Program, in which she proved her skills in writing, math, reading and much more.

Columbia grandmother Barbara Kleinhen earns her high school diploma today, after years of preaching to her children about the importance of finishing school.Ms. Kleinhen, a 54-year-old postal worker who is deaf, dropped out of high school almost 40 years ago. But with the help of a sign language interpreter who attended adult education classes with her, she was able to pass all of her tests to earn a diploma through the General Educational Development (GED) program.She's one of more than 30 nontraditional students who will graduate from Howard Community College's adult education program at a ceremony at Smith Theatre.

Rick Long Khem will end his school career in June with a fistful of awards, but he will not graduate and may not be allowed his moment onthe stage with the other members of the Class of 1991.Khem, a 21-year-old Cambodian and the adopted son of Herbert "H" and Ellen Longof Savage, is unique. He is the only student in his English teacher's memory to enter the county school system's English for Speakers of Other Languages program illiterate in his native language.He was 17 when he started school in Maryland.

I think we need to require that all children of illegal immigrants take classes in school that will lead them to becoming citizens of the U.S. The Supreme Court requires all states to allow illegal immigrant children to attend public schools. So, why not require them take the classes needed to become citizens of the U.S. as an added certificate to their high school diploma? Then they would be citizens to attend colleges as any other U.S. citizen student. Any student who does not take these classes and not graduate high school would be deported to their home country.

Educators and politicians rave about Maryland's public schools. And why shouldn't they? After all, Education Week, the nation's most widely circulated education newspaper, has ranked Maryland public schools in first place for the past four years. But we who study public school achievement find, based on 2011 testing, that Massachusetts public schools are in first place, closely followed by New Jersey and Vermont, while Maryland is further back in sixth place. At least that's the conclusion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Regina Friend will don her son's ceremonial cap Thursday morning and take footsteps that were supposed to be his. The mere idea of those steps gives her chills, but she will take them. Her only child worked 41/2 years to earn a diploma from Temple University, and she will collect it, proud as any other parent in the room. "He's not here to accept it," the Cockeysville resident said. "So as his mother, and I'm still his mother, I need to get it for him. " Last August, Roswell Friend — Dulaney High graduate, college athlete, selfless friend, soon-to-be Temple alum — went for a run over a Philadelphia bridge and never came back.

I am late getting to this, but I can't let the weekend pass without some praise for Glenn Clark and the interview he did on his WNST radio show with Ralph Friedgen, the former University of Maryland football coach. The interview has been excerpted, carried and commented everywhere in the last 48 hours as it deserves to be. Clark did excellent work in showing us how self-centered, immature and reckless with his words Friedgen could be. Here's the portion of the interview causing all the discussion: Clark: Is it tough for you to watch?

After months of searching, the family of Phylicia Simone Barnes welcomed her home Saturday, but it was hardly the reunion they had prayed for. Family and friends gathered for an emotional afternoon funeral service at Springfield Baptist Church in Conyers, Ga., to remember the teen who went missing from a Northwest Baltimore apartment complex four months ago while visiting family over Christmas. "We are so grateful to announce that Simone is no longer lost, no longer missing," said Pastor Eric Wendel Lee Sr. at the start of the service, which the church broadcast over the Internet.

Baltimore's top cop is adding another obligation to his busy schedule next month: part-time student. Speaking at a ceremony Friday for a group of officers enrolled in a leadership certificate program at the University of Maryland University College, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III disclosed that he would soon be going back to school himself. Bealefeld has a high school diploma. He dropped out of Anne Arundel Community College to join the police academy after suffering a sports injury that dashed his hopes of earning an athletic scholarship.

Booted out of Dunbar High in the ninth grade, Jacquette D. Gibson wasn't going to blow a second chance to get her education.The first time around, she admits, she was a lazy teen-ager who rarely attended school.The second time, she was a model student, missing only one session with her adviser in a program that helps adults earn high school diplomas."I went through summer. I even went on my birthday," said Ms. Gibson, 20. "I felt like it was my last chance. I had to do something."Last night, Ms. Gibson graduated from the Maryland Adult External High School Diploma Program.

A headline in yesterday's editions of The Sun gave an incorrect number of years for the period of time from Ferdinand Korff's graduation from the University of Maryland to now. The correct number is 73.The Sun regrets the error.In an outdoor ceremony, with his father watching proudly, Ferdinand Korff received his diploma on May 30, 1917, from what is now the University of Maryland College Park. There was little applause -- only about 40 graduates in all -- and, after declining a second lieutenant's commission, Mr. Korff took the next train home to Baltimore.

When Howard Winchester-Bey was 14, he promised his dying mother he would graduate from high school. On Tuesday, he will fulfill the pledge he made nearly 40 years ago. Now 54, Winchester-Bey will be among 30 students who will complete their basic education, albeit late or by nontraditional means, through the South Baltimore Learning Center, a nonprofit organization that is celebrating 20 years of offering second chances. The organization has given more than 1,000 Baltimore residents the chance to earn their General Educational Development certificates and high school diplomas in the past two decades.

A dual degree program that will debut in Baltimore County high schools next summer will allow qualified students to pursue college courses as early as their sophomore year and earn an associate of arts degree along with a high school diploma. The partnership between county schools and the Community College of Baltimore County will save parents money, challenge motivated students and allow 18-year-olds to transfer to a four-year college as juniors. The county will recruit candidates for its Diploma to Degree program, believed to be the first in the state, in the spring from the current class of high school freshmen.