GONZALES - An online program offered by the Ascension Parish Library to help adults gain a high school diploma just had its first graduate.

Dquincy Muse, 36, is the first Ascension graduate of the Excel Adult High School.

Muse is a local transportation worker who wanted to open a commercial driver's license training school. When he was told he couldn't be an instructor without a high school diploma; he set out to change that.

"I was in the River Parishes community college program that they got and I was just doing a little complaining to my wife, we was talking and I was like this thing is pretty difficult and no help, you know you got to go in and get help in the way that I work," Muse said.

One day, Muse's wife found an ad online about a program being offered at the Ascension Parish Library. It was called the Excel Adult High School. It gives adults ages 21 and up a chance to earn their high school diploma online.

Ascension Parish Library Adult Literacy Coordinator Carlos Contreras says those interested can apply online, but participants must live in Ascension Parish and have an Ascension Parish Library card.

"Interested individuals can apply for it, and they get set up with preliminary courses, then we do interviews to try to make sure we're getting a good match," Contreras said.

After Muse applied for the program, he went in for an interview. Once he told them his story, the library knew Muse was a perfect fit.

"It was multiple factors actually. He seemed really confident. He seemed really sure of himself where he was at this point in his career and his life, and he had some additional goals he was trying to achieve." Contreras said.

Muse entered the program in March, only needing a few more credits to get his diploma. Now with a diploma in his hand, he hopes to complete the process of opening a CDL training school for the next generation of truck and transport drivers.

"Man it feels wonderful man, it's been some years, I was procrastinating a couple of years about it, and it really pushed me when I got denied from being able to be an instructor," Muse said.

The Ascension Parish Library is one of four libraries in Louisiana that offer the program.