Kendra Merrick wore a red gown and a cap decorated by her eight children. It shone with metallic butterflies, purple pompoms and her initials, K.M.
“My babies decorated my hat,” she said in the lobby of McDonogh 35 Senior High School as she prepared to walk in her commencement ceremony June 26. “Emotions are running high.”
Merrick, 47, was graduating from the Youth Empowerment Project, an alternative high school program in New Orleans. In the audience sat her sons and daughters, one of whom also enrolled in the program this year and will graduate in 2026.
Merrick was among the record-breaking 139 students who graduated from the program this year. Established in 2004, YEP is an adult education and high school equivalency program for people who didn’t complete high school. Graduates as young as 16 receive their credentials through the High School Equivalency Test, an alternative route to the traditional diploma…