Eugene Tumbaga adjusted the purple orchid lei around his neck, savoring his moment in the limelight.

But it was also bittersweet for the 23-year-old father of two, who stood clutching his new high school diploma during graduation ceremonies last night at McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Beach Park.

In four days he will be standing in a courtroom facing a prison sentence.

Yet none of that can take away the satisfaction Tumbaga felt as his name was announced, proving he had accomplished one of life's first great milestones — graduating from high school.

"I'm glad I'm going to do my time and clear out all my records," he said of the mandatory three- to eight-month sentence he'll begin serving next week for driving without a license several times after two DUI arrests. He's already on probation in another case.

"By the time I come out I'll be all set and then I can go back to school."

Every year, competency-based high school diploma programs like the one from which Tumbaga graduated offer a second chance to hundreds of high school dropouts who want to chart a different future.

"For them it's an enormous accomplishment," said Sid Rosen, who heads Adult Friends for Youth. The counseling agency is among several community agencies that offer the C-based program to young people who have struggled with school in the past.

"For middle-class kids, graduation is just expected," Rosen said. "For these kids, they dropped out, a lot of them had a whole range of dysfunctional kinds of experiences and for them the classes have been part of therapy. Many of the kids in our classes are in our therapy groups, too."

Each summer when a new class graduates, hundreds of family members are there to cheer and cry.

Many say they never expected to see this day, Rosen said.

"These are students who they never believed would graduate from high school," Rosen said of jubilant family members.

"And most of the kids believed they never would either."

As this group stood solemnly in black graduation robes last night, surrounded by friends and family toting balloons and babies, and cheering wildly, they knew they were stepping into new futures of their own making.

Now they can feel comfortable going to college, filling out a resume or even expecting a better-paying job.

Tumbaga already knew his life was going to be different.

"It's like a dream come true," he said before the ceremony. "I've been trying to accomplish this for the past couple of years. My younger brother, when he graduated from this school last year after dropping out of high school, he motivated me. I told myself if he can make it, I can make it, too."

Six of the new graduates have put in applications for college at Honolulu or Leeward Community Colleges, but probably won't start until the spring semester in January. At least one, Maselino Fiaavae, 20, is headed into the Army and hopes to go to college at the same time.

For Fiaavae, school had become a burden after he took a job that kept him up late every night as he worked to earn money for the costs of senior year. As he missed morning classes and the tardy slips piled up, he eventually was getting so many failing grades there was no reason to stay.

"I was working to get money to do my senior stuff," he said. "It was a bad decision."

But at last night's graduation, with 35 family members in attendance, all that was forgotten in the excitement of success.

Fragrant maile lei had been sent by aunties in American Samoa and the family had been stringing flower lei for two days.

"We're really proud of him," said his older sister, Kuinizia Sau, 23. "It's something he wanted for a long time."

Other families were also emotional last night.

"For Dane (Salis) to be graduating like this, I invited everyone I knew," said his jubilant father, Derek Salis.

Charles Poepoe-Aiwohi was high-fiving his brother, Daniel, who was graduating. "It's an accomplishment," Charles said as his friend, Ashley Tan, agreed.

"He's been through hard times, but this program helped him a lot," Tan said.

Sonny Lealiiee was just as excited as he anticipated the big night. He knew his grandmother would be there, and so would his grandpa, his parents, probably seven or eight cousins and maybe all of his five younger siblings.

"It's up to you if you want to change your life," said Lealiiee, who dropped out of high school in junior year as his life slid into substance abuse fueled by peer pressure. "It was a big downhill for me. ... My friend gave me that one hit of ice and it just changed my life. I never listened to my parents any more."

But seeing Tumbaga's younger brother graduate, and talking to a counselor at Adult Friends for Youth, he found the strength to change.

"I really needed someone to listen to me," he said of the counselor. "And it was her. It was like being my mother. And she gives me advice, too."

Now Lealiiee tells friends who also have dropped out to come back to school on their own terms — at this different kind of school that leaves them time during the week to work, as well, if they need to.

Lealiiee said he has signed up two friends for the coming year.

"I was telling my friends if you graduate young you have more time for your life to plan what you want to do," he said.

Lealiiee said he'll go to a community college, maybe to study underwater welding. Or mechanics. One of his strengths is tinkering with cars and he'd like to learn more.

"I'm 19," he said. "I have to move on with my life."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.