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Michelle Herold made a promise to her mother last year.

"My mother became ill on Aug. 8," Herold said. "We found out she had lung cancer and was dying."

While spending time with her mother in the final months, Herold said her mother urged her to earn a General Educational Development (GED) diploma.

Herold said she always wanted to work in the medical field, but life got in the way. She was only a math credit short of graduating in 1987 from Lenoir City High School. However, "education was not pushed as much back then. I just went on and got married."

Herold's mother never lost sight of her daughter's dream. "My mom always said I'd do great at it (a career in the medical field)," she said. "I don't know why I never went on and got it. I suppose I didn't think I had the time or just didn't think I needed it. I have three kids, and I always wanted to make sure they had food on the table and a roof over their heads."

Both of Herold's parents earned a GED. Her mother dropped out of high school so she could take care of her siblings. "My mother changed her life at 40. She was a maid at Maids-To-Order and then she went to get her GED. She then worked as a special needs teacher at Lenoir City Elementary School for the next 18 years."

Herold, who is also 40, started going to Blount County Adult Education Program classes in mid-January. "Some days it hurt to get up," she said. "However, I made a promise to my mother, and you don't break a promise to your momma."

Nearly 2½ months later, she took her GED test and passed it on the first try.

Herold wants to become a medical assistant, and she received notification Monday that she had been accepted into the Tennessee Technology Center at Knoxville. The program only takes 23 students, she said. "I feel like I've got an angel in heaven watching over me -- and it's my mother.

"Even though I'm 40 years old, I feel like I can change the world. I want to work with oncology patients. I feel like I've found my calling. " love learning more now than I did when I was a teenager. I feel like a teenager."

Class valedictorian

The Blount County Adult Education's valedictorian, Trevor Davis, moved from Las Cruces, N.M. to Blount County five to six months ago. The 20-year-old lived in Colorado for most of his life and moved during his senior year to New Mexico, he said.

During his first day of school, Davis said he went to a social studies class and found his teacher instructing the class entirely in Spanish. He went to visit the school's principal, expressed his concerns and did not feel they were properly received. The next day, Davis said he filled out the paperwork to formally drop out of school.

He attended a GED program in New Mexico and did not like it. Davis said it was unnecessarily complicated with him being asked to attend classes in his hometown and drive 50 miles to turn in all paperwork. "It was a big runaround," he said.

Davis said he started the program in April and attended four classes. He plans to earn enough money to pay for college.

He recently got a job in Lakeshore Mental Health Institute's dietary program. "It seems like it will be a cool job," he said. "It seems simple, but I couldn't have done it without a GED."