JEFFERSONTOWN, Ky. — The class of 2025 at Jeffersontown High School is dedicating the next four years to focus on graduating.

J-Town High School freshman Jayda Finley and her classmates stepped up to a challenge earlier this week: a commitment to graduate.

"I need to do my work, I need to get my grades, do what I need to do to be successful," Finley said.

The school held a "pledge to graduate" ceremony to increase student motivation by highlighting the importance of a high school diploma.

But it’s more than just a graduation for Finley.

"My inspiration to graduate is for my mom because she passed away and it’s just somebody to make happy," Finley explained.

Finley lost her mom in an apartment fire in 2010. She is working through her grief to earn her high school diploma. 

It's an achievement with plenty of challenges, but this young student is excited for her future and hopes to make her mom proud.

"I think about her everyday when I walk through the door and like I have a mission to accomplish," she said.

Dr. Lorietta Irvin, assistant principal at Jeffersontown High School, spearheaded the event.

She said the banner will serve as a visual reminder of the promise each student made in graduating on time.

"Every moment counts with our students. Their freshman year is the foundation to everything they’re going to do these next four years as well as their careers in the future," Irvin said.

It'll be four years before the class of 2025 receives a diploma, but this commitment is a symbolic one for freshman Jean Gomis.

"Getting my high school work done, making sure I’m a respectable human being, good citizen of society that’s what’s important to me now. Not worried about the future, not worried about the past, just staying in the moment," Gomis said.

Upon graduation, this 14 year-old wants to pursue a civil engineering degree while also joining the U.S. Military.

"My grandma would always tell me you’re playing with the big boys now. Being in high school, it's like I’m going into the real world," said Gomis.

School administrators say the banner will transition with the students and remain with them until they graduate.

"That will help them to have this visual reminder that in four years [they] will graduate, [they] will be successful, [they] will transition successfully to a college or a career or to a trade program," Irvin said.

Around 270 freshman students participated in the ceremony.