Ketia Louissant wants her 16-year-old son Darvens "Dave" Holly John Marys to stay close to home. It's a familiar feeling among many high school parents who saw their children graduate Sunday.

Bismarck Public Schools, Mandan Public Schools and Shiloh Christian School hosted graduation ceremonies Sunday. Century High School graduated at 1 p.m. at the Bismarck Civic Center and Bismarck high School graduated at 5 p.m. at the Civic Center. Mandan High School graduated at 2 p.m. at Faris Field. Shiloh graduated at 2:30 p.m. in the school gym.

For John Marys, it was a year of change and accomplishments that lead to the walk across the stage. He finally came to live with his mother in 2007 six years after submitting immigration paperwork to move to the United States from Haiti.

"That was so hard," John Marys said. "I wanted to be with them. I prayed and then it happened."

His mother, who has been in the United States eight years, is why he is in Bismarck. After she moved from Haiti, she moved to the East Coast and then to Florida, where she worked for Sykes. The company needed more French interpreters in Bismarck, and relocated her here. She now works for Unisys.

Once here, he learned his fourth language, English, in less than two months. Growing up, John Marys was more interested in learning languages other than English. Haiti has two official languages, Creole and French. In addition to those languages, he also speaks Spanish.

In addition to learning English and taking coursework in English, his mother helped him learn. She speaks English fluently, and would help him expand his vocabulary.

"I had to translate for him," at first, Louissant said.

Then she created summaries for him, then made him use the dictionary, she said.

He found some words in French were spelled similarly to English words, just pronounced differently, so that helped, John Marys said.

He'll be close to home for the next two years. He plans to attend Bismarck State College before going to the University of North Dakota, where he wants to study pre-medicine.

He wants to be a surgeon because he wants to help people, and, well, it looks like fun. He likes television shows like "CSI" because of the things they can do with the bodies, he said.

In school he liked biology and math class, and his favorite class was his history class. He liked the teacher and he liked learning about U.S. history.

From an early age he's shown a propensity for math, Louissant said. He was able to do math problems in his head and complex math equations were easy to solve, she said. He doesn't like trigonometry, though, he said.

In his free time he likes to play basketball and watch movies. Basketball is something he can do for fun, and be active. Movies appeal to his imagination.

"Funny movies and superhero movies. Not scary movies. Also, epic stories," he said.

"Prince Caspian," the latest Chronicles of Narnia movie was the latest epic story movie he saw. He also saw "Iron Man," which he liked quite a lot.

"It was so cool, he was flying," John Marys said, about the character in "Iron Man."

His first ideas of the United States came from movies, he said. The first time John Marys saw snow, he was excited, although it didn't live up to what he had seen in movies. His mother explained to him that it was because it was dry, he said.

But sometimes images from media can paint an incomplete picture. The Haiti he and his mother know is different from the one that is depicted in the news, he and his mother said. Because of this, many people assume they came from a poor country where people are not educated.

"They can see I'm not like that," Louissant said.

John Marys was one of 347 graduates from Century High School. Bismarck High School graduated 426 students, Mandan High School graduated 212 students and Shiloh graduated 19 students.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@bismarcktribune.com.)