\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kiiitv.com\/assets\/shared-images\/icons\/arrow-circle-down.svg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\nJosiah Ponce will earn his associate degree before his high school diploma and plans to pursue a career in education.<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 A Corpus Christi high school senior will make history this week as the first dual credit student selected to serve as keynote speaker for Del Mar College\u2019s Spring 2026 commencement ceremony.<\/p>\n
Josiah Ponce, a student at CCISD Collegiate High School and Del Mar College, will address graduates on Friday during the college\u2019s commencement ceremony at the Hilliard Center.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n This story continues below.
<\/p>\n
In a press release, Del Mar College said Ponce is set to earn his Associate in Arts degree in Liberal Arts before receiving his high school diploma the following day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He plans to continue his education at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi as an elementary education major.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy experience with CCISD, Collegiate High School and Del Mar College has been truly unique,\u201d Ponce said. \u201cIt has been a challenging but rewarding journey, and I\u2019m proud to have reached this milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n
College officials said nearly 1,250 students are part of the Spring 2026 graduating class, with more than 330 dual credit students earning certificates or associate degrees.<\/p>\n
They add that Ponce\u2019s speech will focus on perseverance, future opportunities, and recognizing the people who supported graduates throughout their educational journeys.<\/p>\n
Ponce has also earned recognition through the Texas Association of Future Educators, where he served in leadership roles and gained experience in public speaking and mentoring students.<\/p>\n
Outside the classroom, he has worked at the Texas State Aquarium and interned with CCISD\u2019s professional learning department, helping support educator training programs.<\/p>\n
Ponce said his goal is to become a school superintendent someday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI aspire to become a superintendent because I see myself as a leader who wants to create meaningful change while supporting both students and educators,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josiah Ponce will earn his associate degree before his high school diploma and plans to pursue a career…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-290014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}