For 128 Los Angeles County foster youth, graduation day came with extra weight.

The county honored the Class of 2026 at Walt Disney Concert Hall for graduating from high school, a milestone that statistics cited at the event show can be hard to reach for students in the foster care system.

Among those recognized was Palmdale student Majesty Ala Min Muhajar, who graduated with a 4.5 GPA and was named valedictorian at her high school. She will attend UC Santa Barbara to study biology.

“I always maintained above a 4.0 GPA throughout my entire high school career,” Muhajar said.

She also said, “I feel really honored, to be honest, and I also feel super ecstatic that all my hard work amounted to something.”

Lancaster student Nadia Salgado graduated with a 4.5 GPA from Quartz Hill High School. She said taking Advanced Placement and honors courses helped her reach that result.

“That helped me reach such a high level of GPA,” she said.

Salgado, a first-generation college student, plans to attend the University of California, Irvine, where she will study biological sciences. She hopes to one day become a veterinarian.

Katelyn Sanchez, a senior from South Los Angeles, graduated from Foshay Learning Center with a 4.3 GPA and will attend USC in the fall to study accounting.

“I was placed with my grandparents, thankfully, and they have been a lot of inspiration for me and thanks to their help, I’m here today to celebrate my accomplishment of coming to USC and to celebrate my academics,” Sanchez said.

She said living near the university shaped her goal.

“I live a block away from USC, so I grew up around the campus, I grew up around the USC spirit,” Sanchez said.

According to a 2025 University of Connecticut study cited during the event, about 69 percent to 85 percent of foster youth graduate from high school, compared with about 95 percent of students overall. Nationwide, about 8 percent to 12 percent of foster youth go on to earn a two- or four-year college degree.

“These youth have gone through extreme challenges, and they’ve just proven to be resilient,” said Claudia Bustillos, an independent living program coordinator.

For many of the students recognized, the achievement represented more than academic success.

“It’s super easy even as a regular high school student to have doubts maybe … but if you genuinely want something, just put in effort and anything is possible,” Muhajar said.

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