High School Senior Will Return in Fall as Teacher

A full two weeks before graduating from high school, 18-year-old Raven Osborne will be getting another diploma… from college. According to CBS News, Osborne will graduate Friday from Purdue University Northwest, then graduate high school in Gary, Ind., on May 22. On-campus college courses are a graduation requirement at Osborne’s 21st Century Charter High School. Osborne began taking courses at a local community college during her freshman year, and after gaining an associate’s degree, decided to keep going, reports the Big Ten Network. Osborne’s tuition and transportation costs were funded by a state program. She began balancing her coursework by taking high school classes over the summer to make room for harder Purdue online and on-campus courses during the academic year. But keeping up the pace wasn’t always easy.

"Sophomore, that was the most work. I had five high school classes, four college classes," Osborne remembers. But she maintained her cool, with some professors at Purdue admitting they initially didn’t know she was still in high school. She majored in sociology with a minor in secondary education. While five of Osborne’s graduating high school class of 43 earned associate’s degrees, achieving a bachelor’s degree while still in high school is a first-time accomplishment in the school’s history. She’ll be returning to her high school in the fall, but this time as a teacher. (More students stories.)