Better Late Than Never: Determined 20-Year-Old To Become First High School Grad In Family

COLLEGE PARK, MD - MAY 17: Graduates of Bowie State University put messages on their mortarboard hats during the school's graduation ceremony at the Comcast Center on the campus of the University of Maryland May 17, 2013 in College Park, Maryland. First lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement speech for the 600 graduates of Maryland's oldest historically black university and one of the ten oldest in the country. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (2013 Getty Images)

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) – It's taken him six years, but on May 23, 20-year-old Nikko Ramirez will become the first person in his family to graduate from high school.

A student at the Community Learning Center of Rutherford County in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Ramirez took his first high school course in 2008. Bouts of truancy caused gaps in his education, but he was determined to graduate.

Commonly called CLC, the school is a Category I private high school. It was created by special application to the state Department of Education and receives full funding from the county government. County Mayor Ernest Burgess serves as the school's superintendent.

The school was originally developed as an alternative school for at-risk teens, but most students served today don't necessarily fall in that category.