PASCO -- Liliana De Jesus had two good excuses not to graduate from high school, or at least not to graduate this week -- her two daughters, Suheilly, 4, and Dayana, 9 months.

But Liliana didn't make excuses. She will become the first in her family to get a high school diploma Friday.

And the 18-year-old didn't just finish high school -- she did so in record time and with the best grade-point average of any senior at New Horizons High School in Pasco this year.

The young woman will have to overcome her shyness to give the valedictorian speech at the school's graduation ceremony, which is at 7 p.m. at Columbia Basin College's Byron Gjerde Center.

Liliana dropped out of school near the end of eighth grade when she got pregnant with Suheilly. She stayed out of the classroom for a year.

But then she realized her responsibilities as a parent included going back to school. "I still tell my oldest daughter, 'I have to go to school to give you a better future,' " Liliana said. "She's old enough to understand now. She says, 'Yes, mommy.' "

And so she enrolled at New Horizons three years ago, in part because the school offers day care for students' young children.

Her partner and father of the girls, Fidel Esquivel, works a lot, Liliana said.

Liliana's family helps out with child care, too, and she found a supportive environment at New Horizons.

"Our prime population is drop out retrieval," said Christy Challendar, the school's principal. "If you have a desire to work hard, that's what we support."

Liliana had that desire and acted upon it. She took four years' worth of coursework in three, effectively making up for the year she missed at 14.

She achieved that by taking more than the required number of courses each school year, taking summer classes and enrolling at the Tri-Tech Skills Center in Kennewick.

It was there that she found her calling. Liliana plans to become a nurse.

During her two years at Tri-Tech, she became a certified nursing assistant and cared for residents at several local nursing homes. She loved the work.

"I would feed them, talk to them and be a friend to them," she said.

But her career goal is to work with very young patients. She wants to be a nurse in a children's hospital, preferably in a burn unit.

"Working with kids is emotional," Liliana said. "You have to be strong."

Liliana has experience around kids, aside from taking care of her own daughters. She has put in many hours helping out at Brighter Horizons, the day care on her school's campus.

"I would hire her in a heartbeat," said Tina Gray, the day care's director.

"She's a perfectionist," said Rose Johnson, a supervisor at the day care. "And if she doesn't know something, she always asks."

Liliana said she enjoys working with children because she can learn as much from them as they learn from her. She's inspired by a child's natural curiosity and eagerness to learn, she said.

Liliana isn't done learning, not by far. She's already signed up for the nursing program at Columbia Basin College for this fall and plans to continue at Washington State University after she gets her associate's degree.

"They say college is hard," Liliana said. "But nothing's going to be easy in life."

-- Jacques Von Lunen: 509-582-1402; jvonlunen@tricityherald.com