He can't walk or speak; she uses a wheelchair and has little use of her right side.

Though Nick Gibson, 18, and Jasmine Spencer, 17, faced challenges during their school tenure, both reached one of their goals last week, graduating from high school.

Nick graduated from Woodford County High School in Versailles on Friday, while Jasmine collected her diploma the same day from Lafayette High School in Lexington.

Both have cerebral palsy.

Nick's illness affects virtually his entire body. He is not verbal, and uses a specially programmed iPad tablet computer to speak. He has limited use of his right hand only, just enough for him to control the joy stick of his powered wheelchair and type on a keyboard with one finger.

Jasmine's mom, Sherry Spencer, said doctors once told her that her daughter "would never be able to walk, talk or do anything for herself." Jasmine proved them wrong.

"Today, she can do everything but walk," her mother said.

Having mastered high school, both Jasmine and Nick are ready to move ahead.

Jasmine will attend Bluegrass Community and Technical College, on her way to becoming a teacher. Nick plans to attend Western Kentucky University this fall. He loves sports and hopes to work in sports management someday.

"That could be difficult for him to achieve, but Nick is one of the most positive and optimistic people you'll ever meet considering what he's had to overcome," said his mom, Shari Randle. "He believes he'll figure out a way to do this. And knowing Nick, I think he will."

Randle describes Nick as "physically challenged, but not mentally challenged." He has been in mainstream classrooms throughout his school career, rather than in special education classes.

His main struggles, his mom said, have been in just physically completing homework and classroom assignments. Because of his condition, even simple homework tasks take extra time for him to complete, she said.

Even so, Nick continued to take the most demanding courses in school, earning about a 3.5 grade-point average, and amazing people with his ability to do complex math problems in his head.

"The way he can do trig problems in his head is incredible," said Sarah Picklesimer, an instructional aide who worked with Nick. "I would sit in class with him and it would take me forever just to try and figure out some of the problems. But Nick would just punch out the answers on his computer. I still don't know how he does it."

Shari Randle credits Woodford school officials with going out of their way to help Nick and other special-needs children. He got widespread support from classmates and the general community, she said. Nick started going to ball games at an early age to watch his older brother, Wade Gibson, play. School officials responded by arranging for Nick to attend away games, and sit on the bench at home basketball games.

Nick entered the Mr. Woodford County High School contest this year and came in fourth.

"The school system just took him in and made him a part of things," Randle said. "It would have been easy for him to get down and give up, but that's never been his personality. Ever since I can remember, he wakes up with a smile on his face, ready to meet the day and do what he has to do."

Jasmine Spencer also had to deal with challenges, her mother said.

Her condition affects her right side and she tires quickly.

Jasmine herself says there were times over the years when other students weren't always kind.

"Sometimes there were classmates who would pick on me and stuff like that," she said. "They knew why I was in a wheelchair, but they didn't seem to care. It was kind of discouraging."

But she wasn't discouraged for long.

Jasmine says she has wanted to be a teacher since she was about 8 years old.

"I want to inspire kids," she said. "Some of my teachers inspired me so much to overcome obstacles, and I want to do the same. I want to let kids know that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it."