Mother, daughter earn high school diplomas at same ceremony

ROCHESTER, Mich (FOX 2) - Graduating from high school is a huge milestone in life.

For one Metro Detroit family, it's a bit extra special this year. 

Maria Ramirez-Lopez, and her daughter, Ashley Rivera both graduated from school on June 8. 

Ramirez-Lopez had left school when she was younger to help her own mother raise her siblings, but years later decided to go back and finish. 

"One day I told my husband we were in the living room, you know what, I’m gonna go back to school," she said. 

It was done, in part at least, to motivate her two oldest children to finish school. 

"If you’re gonna do it I’m do it with you - we can both go through this together you know," Lopez said her mother told her.

The pair walked in the Utica Alternative Education commencement together, inspiring each other along the way. 

"There was a time when she would come home and say Ashley I have a lot of homework," Lopez said. "Me and my bother would help her with stuff she needed so we would help each other."

Maria Ramirez-Lopez, and her daughter, Ashley Rivera, walked in the same high school ceremony at Utica High School on Saturday, June 8, 2023.