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These high school grads range in age from 19 to 85

70 students graduated Tuesday evening from Folsom Cordova Adult School, which gives non-traditional students a path to earning their high school diploma.

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. — Seventy people are celebrating after a different kind of high school graduation on Tuesday evening, and they range in age from 19 to 85!

Folsom Cordova Adult School gives non-traditional students a pathway to earning their high school diploma. Graduates didn't get their diplomas earlier in life for reasons ranging from illness or pregnancy to immigration, incarceration and more.

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Tuesday's graduates represented the largest class to ever graduate from FCAS. The ceremony was held at the Cordova High School Performing Arts Center in Rancho Cordova. Students earned their high school diplomas taking free night or day classes.

“It’s never too late to get your high school diploma,” said Kerry Marini with FCAS, explaining that these are people “from all backgrounds and stories (who) take a leap of faith and return to school to earn their high school diploma.”

Raquel Marquez, a 39-year-old mother of three young children, graduated Tuesday night. She is from Mexico and explained that “life, kids, work” kept her from getting her diploma earlier in life.

She’s now enrolled in Folsom Lake College and has plans to attend Sac State in two years, but she said returning to school to get her high school diploma, at first, was “very scary and very nerve-wracking. I was just scared about going back to school. I felt like I was really dumb…but once I got there, I knew it was easy, fun!”

She told ABC10 she encourages other adults in her boat to take the plunge and get their high school diploma.

“It is the greatest thing you’ll ever do!” she said. “It was hard to juggle school with kids and work and just being a mom and just being everywhere. It’s really hard, but you can do it!”

Diana Voropay, another FCAS graduate, is 21-year-old who said “wrong decisions, going down the wrong path with the wrong people” kept her from getting her high school diploma a few years prior.

“I was a little bit nervous, but I was definitely ready,” she said, of returning to get her diploma.

She said she’s relieved, happy and excited to be getting her diploma.

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WATCH ALSO: Stanislaus State philanthropist Dorothy Bizzini attends all but one graduation in 54 years

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