On December 30, 2018, the Chicago Tribune ran an article(click that link) titled, “High Flyers seek College Degrees While in High School.” The picture from the article is above and features Erin Lewis, Shania McDonald, Kyleah Martin, Lillian Santana and Abram Lewis. Well, where are they in terms of meeting their goal of earning college degrees while in high school?
Was it just a lot of talk? Nope!
Erin earned her associate degree before starting her junior year in high school and will be five credits short of a full bachelors from Purdue NW before graduating from our high school this May. Shania and Kyleah, a year younger than Erin, completed their associate degrees before starting their second semester of their junior year this year. Lillian will have a full year of college under her belt prior to starting her senior year and is on track to finish her associate’s before graduating from our high school in 2022. And Abram, the youngest (he was in 7th grade in the picture above), is now a freshman and will have 13 college credits by the end of his freshman year. He plans to follow in his sister’s footsteps and complete his associate by the end of his sophomore year and finish his bachelor’s before graduating in 2024.
We are so excited for these “high flyers” for so many reasons. First, these are great accomplishments on their own. Second, they show others in our schools what can be done with hard work by them and support from our school. Indeed, we now have more than 50% of our students taking college level classes while in our high school. Pretty cool!
This is what happens when a school truly believes in all students being able to go to college and that same school helps students prepare for and succeed in college. That’s what we do!
Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Kevin Teasley
Founder/President