The Yankton Sioux Tribe Adult General Education Diploma (GED) held their graduation ceremony Friday, June 7th. The ceremony was held at Wagner Lake. The ceremony opened with Richie Sully giving the opening prayer. Barb Unruh, the SD State GED Administrator and YST Vice Chairman, Jason Cooke, were guest speakers at the event. The drum group at the ceremony was the Hilltop Singers (Fancis Boyer).

Students graduating with their GED include Kendra Blom, Colton Drapeau, Danny Lee Fischer, Emily Joseph, Gavin Morgan, Demitri D. Sully, Cameron D. Svatos, Taylor Turner, Taylor Walz, Mila Rain Zephier and Thadius Zephier.

High achievement awards were awarded to the graduate who received the highest score in the four core areas of the test. The core test areas include language arts, math, social studies and science. This year’s high achievement awards were given to Kendra Blom in both language arts and math. Colton Drapeau received the award in social studies and Gavin Morgan was the recipient in science.

Barb Selwyn-Sully is the administrator for the Wagner YST Adult GED site that services Charles-Mix County. In 2015 the Wagner YST became a GED testing site and in 2016 the YST Education Program moved into its current building. The program allows those qualified to obtain their GED at their own pace. Barb finds all the websites that the students may need and provides the students their study materials. Transportation can be provided for those that need it within Charles-Mix County. The YST Higher Education Program in collaboration with the Pearson Vue testing company assist the students to register to take their GED test online.

The program is set up to allow all students to be successful when it comes to studying for, taking and hopefully passing the GED. Barb offers one on one tutoring for those that may learn differently and have a hard time studying by themselves. Barb also helps the students prepare for education after their GED if they want to pursue higher learning. She has five of her recent grads moving onto college while the other six students will be working.

One interesting fact about the GED is that if a test score exceeds a score of 175, that individual can earn college credits.

Congratulations to the YST Graduating Class of 2023-2024. For more information about obtaining a GED or other forms of education, please contact the Yankton Sioux Tribe Education Program at 605--384-3382 or visit the office at 110 SE 1st Street.