This weekend promises to be doubly active for Iola High School seniors McKinley Ford and Chelsea Holman.
Because of a scheduling quirk, the duo — for one day — will hold a college degree before receiving their high school diplomas.
Both have accumulated enough college credit hours at Allen County Community College to receive their associates degrees at today’s ACCC commencement ceremony.
And on Sunday, they will walk across the stage as graduating members of Iola High School’s class of 2011.
The pair spoke about taking full advantage of the dual-credit offerings available at IHS, allowing them to earn both high school and college credits for the same classwork.
Both also enrolled in several college-only courses in their spare time, including several online classes, as well as doing summer school for even more credits.
Ford and Holman’s accomplishments are eerily similar.
Both were able to maintain a 3.78 grade-point average in high school and 3.8 in college.
Both will scarcely take a breath after graduation, instead enrolling in summer courses to accumulate even more college credits before heading to Pittsburg State University in the fall.
And both ultimately plan to have their bachelors degrees in hand just two years after their high school careers are finished.
Holman, daughter of Ron and Kindith Holman, already has been accepted into PSU’s nursing school.
Ford, daughter of Mike and Nancy Ford, is seeking a degree in accounting.
HOLMAN’S PATH was so accelerated that she earned enough high school credits by last December that she could have graduated then. She’s spent all of her time at the ACCC campus in Iola this spring.
Ford was one high school credit shy of matching the feat. She has chosen to spend a majority of her time at the high school, “because I wanted the full high school experience: going to games, being involved with activities.”
The key, both agreed, boiled down to a few key elements — hard work, a few evenings and weekends of sacrifice and proper time management.
“When college teachers give you an assignment, they won’t keep reminding you that it needs to be finished,” Holman said. “Some of the high school teachers will drag you along to make sure you do the work.”
College teachers, Ford agreed, expected the students to complete their tasks without frequent reminders. “And the college teachers expected more out of you,” she added.
But the independence, particularly with the online courses, offered a key benefit, both agreed.
“We could work ahead,” Ford noted.
Both poured themselves into their college studies whenever their schedule allowed, which meant they could do several weeks’ worth of assignments in an single weekend.
Working in advance prior to spring break allowed Ford to take a family trip which she otherwise would have had to skip.
“For whatever reason, a lot of my online assignments were due Friday nights,” Holman said, which meant several Friday nights at home working.
“I know I’ve missed out on a lot of the high school experience,” Holman said. “I’m not around my classmates as much as I was.”
TODAY’S college commencement ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m. at the ACCC gymnasium.
The IHS graduation ceremony begins at 2 p.m. in the high school gymnasium.
Both are free and open to the public.
