After 30 years at sea, a boat captain comes ashore to earn his high school diploma
As Mat Curto watched his daughter graduate from high school, tears welled in his eyes. He’d watched as she’d persevered through a stressful senior year to secure her diploma. Then, his daughter challenged Curto to obtain his own diploma.
“She said, ‘If I could do it, you could do it, Dad,’” Curto recalls. “And I said, ‘OK!’”
Curto had made his livelihood as a boat captain for the last 30 years but had recently moved on from captaining a high-speed whale-watching catamaran, a career he’d enjoyed for nearly a decade. After that, he tried his hand at a couple of jobs — none of which he liked much — before deciding to buy a PostalAnnex franchise, an independent pack-and-ship business in Buellton where he also offers notary services.
To answer his daughter’s challenge, he needed to find an educational option that would allow him to work around a busy schedule, Curto did a web search and discovered Lompoc Adult School and Career Center (LASCC). After meeting the school’s staff, Curto said he felt welcomed and decided, “This is my fit.”
“I liked that I was able to study at home, online, at my own pace.”
Mat Curto, High School Graduate, Lompoc Adult School and Career Center High School
For about a year, Curto said he woke up every weekday as early as 4:30 am to work on assignments for a minimum of two hours. He resolved to fulfill the 10-hour weekly requirement, but said that the LASCC’s teachers were helpful and flexible.
“They really work with you,” he says. “You got something going on, you call your teacher. You say, ‘Something hit me this week, sorry I only did four hours.’ They’re like, ‘That’s OK, let’s see if we can make it up next week.’”
Curto worked diligently, regularly coming into the LASCC to meet with his teachers and have his notebooks graded. While he had studied hard to earn his boat captain’s license years ago, he admitted he hadn’t been the most serious student in high school.
“School to me was just kinda hanging out with your friends,” he says. “I’d cut school a lot. [With LASCC], I liked that I was able to study at home, online, at my own pace.”
Curto says he also appreciated that he could call his teachers directly if he had difficulty with a class.
“You’re not asking questions in front of a classroom of your peers, [with them] making fun of you and stuff like that,” he says.
After what he described as a “phenomenal” experience with his instructors, he earned his diploma, calling it “one of most incredible highs I’ve had probably in the last 15-20 years.” He says his daughter was “stoked” for him and encouraged anybody who is on the fence about earning their high school diploma as an adult to go for it.
“If you’re going to sign up for it, you have to take it seriously, but it’s not as hard as it seems,” he says. “They make it easy.”
The program might seem hard at first, he added, but with help from the instructors it gets easier.
“After you go for a couple months, you’ll realize it is for you,” he says. “It’s a great, great program.”
For more information on the Lompoc Adult School and Career Center’s high school diploma program, visit https://adulteducation.lusd.org/.
Written by John Flynn
| Regions | Classes & Topics |
|---|---|
| South Coast California | High School |
