Mae-Kayla Linville receives her high school diploma during the Monday board of education meeting.
It may not have been the Mason County Fieldhouse stage, but Mae-Kayla Linville was still able to don her royal blue cap and gown and walk before a crowd at the Mason County board meeting to receive her high school diploma on Monday.
It has been four years since Linville dropped out of high school. Normally, someone over the age of 21 would have to obtain their GED rather than obtain a high school diploma. However, through a virtual high school option now available in Mason County, Linville was able to do just that.
Linville moved to Bracken County with her father while she was still in high school. He was ill and they were homeless.
“I was going to Bracken County High School,” she said. “We were homeless and living out of a hotel. They were having difficulties with my classes because of my credits from Georgia. I attended school there for awhile and then I got an ear infection and wound up at the hospital.”
While she was in the hospital, Linville met a preacher who was able to help the family find a place to live.
That was when she moved to Mason County.
“We came to Mason County and I went to school here,” she said. “I started hanging out with people I thought were my friends. I thought they were people who would be there for me. There was some drinking and smoking.”
Linville said she went back and forth between living with friends until she met the man she is with now.
“I met Christopher in Robertson County,” she said. “I eventually moved in with him and his family.”
While living in Robertson County, Linville began working at the Robertson County Nursing Home. During that time, she became a certified nursing aide, but she wanted to become a home health aide, which required her to obtain a high school diploma or GED.
She had attempted to go back to high school at one point before she had her daughter and son.
“It just didn’t happen,” she said.
When Linville decided she wanted to further her career, she reached out to Seth Faulkner at Mason County High School who told her that if she could find a loophole, the school would work with her.
“I was one credit shy of graduating,” she said. “I didn’t want to go through an entire GED program for one credit hour. I emailed the school several times.”
She received a message on Facebook about a virtual high school that allows those over the age of 21 to obtain a high school diploma if they meet certain criteria.
That criteria includes the student having 16 high school credit hours and they must live in Mason, Bracken, Robertson, Lewis, Nicholas, Fleming counties in Kentucky or Adams County or Brown County, Ohio.
If the student was a Maysville or Mason County dropout, however, they can live in any county and take part in the program.
Linville met these requirements and began taking a math class through the virtual program in June.
“I was so excited,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. I’m still shocked. This is just amazing.”
Linville said she hopes to use this diploma to become a home health aide.
