Formerly known as Norwalk Early College Academy, P-TECH Norwalk is graduating its first ever group with a social distance spin.

The school held a graduation today in which the students received their diplomas in a drive-thru ceremony. While it's not an auditorium packed with thousands of people, the scholars say the commute isn't half bad and it sure beats waiting around for hours to have your name called.

Officials say 20 teens from the program now have high school diplomas from P-TECH or associates degrees from Norwalk Community College.

They'll use this schooling to their advantage in the technology field. Landon Healtly says he's headed to R.I.T. for software engineering. "Those are all the teachers I know at P-Tech and it was nice to see them again. I wouldn't be able to see them again and them coming out to do this felt really good," says Heatly.

Itzel Becerril says she says she never thought graduation would be cancelled due to a pandemic, but she didn’t mind. "I'm an introvert so I don't really like a lot of people looking at me at once, so this is really nice." At eighteen years old, she has both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree. She's also the first one in her family to graduate from college, so she said it was nice for her relatives to see her in cap and gown. "Getting some photos was absolutely great and they're really proud. So I loved this."

P-TECH Norwalk is a no-cost school open to all Norwalk residents entering the ninth grade. The school allows students the opportunity to graduate from high school and earn a degree from NCC in as little as four years.

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