Surrounded by family and friends, each Berkeley Independent Study (BIS)graduating student lined up and said words of thanks to their teachers before receiving their sash and a bouquet of flowers during the BIS graduation on Friday, May 29, 2026. For many graduating seniors in BIS, making it to this day was the culmination of years of hard work overcoming struggles.
Adriana Carlos, a graduating senior in BIS, said that during her senior year she broke her ankle which kept her home for months, causing her to transfer to BIS. Carlos said that the immense support from counselors and teachers at BIS helped her make it through to graduation. “Coming here to Independent Study, it really did help me mentally, and it was just a better way for me to learn,” Carlos said.
This idea of helping students overcome challenges was echoed by Holly Nelson, a Spanish and PE teacher in BIS. “We’ve had students go from nonverbal to getting up on the mic today,” Nelson said.
Julian Passmore, a graduating senior, said that the small and quiet learning environment in BIS made a huge difference in helping him succeed in classroom environments. “All of my teachers here have been really supportive of me and I really love being able to work in the garden,” Passmore said. Passmore was also able to dual enroll in many classes in mathematics at the Berkeley Community College and the University of California, Berkeley, while being in independent studies, allowing him to graduate high school having almost completed a bachelor’s degree.
BHS counselor Linh Le has made it her mission to ensure that no student falls through the cracks during her time working for the Berkeley Unified School District. “It’s extremely important to me that every student graduates high school, and that has been my goal for 22 years and will continue to be,” Le said. She said that her goal was very successful, seen in all of the smiling faces of graduating students with their friends and family.