Juniors Ethan Sharifi and Mateo Zazueta made a bold choice in deciding to graduate one year early with the Class of 2026.

“I wanted to get ahead with other parts of my life,” Sharifi said. “I felt that it would be beneficial to me and that I would get more in graduating early than coming back for 12th grade.”

Several students in previous years have made the same decision that Zazueta and Sharifi are following. Last year, two students walked the
stage with the Class of 2025. A few years before that, multiple students graduated early with the Class of 2020 and Class of 2019.

After reading about the two students that graduated early last year, Sharifi continued to be dedicated to completing class requirements up until this day. There were many obstacles along the way to fulfilling this decision. “Originally, the classes I needed to do to graduate early were all full,” Sharifi said. “Their [Mission College’s] board said that I wouldn’t be allowed to do the five-week English C1000 class since it would be my first college class and I didn’t have a college GPA. What I ended up doing was that I challenged that with the Department Chair at [Mission College], which they then let me do that class.

Despite these hurdles, Sharifi looks forward to having a more flexible schedule and having a job. In addition to the academic goals he has set, Sharifi has a personal career goal of becoming a lawyer in the future. He plans on starting his post-high school education at Pierce College, then transferring to UCLA.

“I want to get ahead in college,” Sharifi said. “I could become a lawyer sooner when I graduate high school sooner, which I could then graduate from college earlier.”

On the other hand, over the past three years of dedicated work and time, Zazueta has had opportunities to take multiple college classes
and required classes in short periods of time. Even with the possible worry of having loads of work, he didn’t feel like he was overwhelmed with doing extra college work on top of his regular school curriculum.

“I don’t even know how I did this,” Zazueta said. “What helped me out a lot was being on the math track that I am on because I was done with all my math requirements after freshman year. I also had to do an extra English course to compensate for my fourth year.”

Beside his academic courses, Zazueta has developed a passion for filmmaking early within high school and wants to continue this passion. He plans on attending Pierce College this upcoming fall.

“Work—that’s a big thing,” Zazueta said. “For the field I want to get into, which is the filmmaking sector, is an industry built on contacts. Getting into it early is definitely a huge advantage.”

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