Seven seniors take early graduation option

Senior Kylie Walker steps out of the front doors. Walker is planning on going to State Fair Community College.

Seven students will end their senior year early and jump into a post-high-school life.

In order to graduate early, the students must apply for this and the school board must approve them. In order to graduate early, students must have all of their 24 credits taken care of, and because four English credits are required, most students must double up on classes at some point during their junior or senior year.

This year there are seven students who have applied and been approved for early graduation. Those students include Shelby Flippin, Madison Danner, Kylie Walker, Gage Capek, Justin Burkes, McKenzie Cleveland, and William Johnson.

After McKenzie Cleveland graduates, she is going to take online State Fair classes for medical terminology. Cleveland will attend OTC to become an occupational therapist assistant. Cleveland will also be living and working in Springfield.

“Graduating early was hard for me because I had a ton of stress put on my shoulders trying to get all my classes taken care of in a shorter amount of time,” said Cleveland.

Madison Danner plans on moving to Kearney and enrolling in college at Maple Woods for two years, and then transfer to either UMKC or Park University. Danner has planned on graduating early since her freshman year and has been working on getting all of her credits done early since then.

Danner did not find getting her credits done early difficult, instead of taking the easy “filler” classes that most students took she made sure to only focus on the classes that she needed.

“The perk of graduating early is that you still have the option to participate in a lot of senior activities and walk with your class at graduation. That was the only thing that was important to me. When I decided I wanted to move and not stay in Warsaw, I knew that this was a perfect time to move and get settled on my own instead of waiting,” Danner said.

Shelby Flippin plans on moving to Kansas and will be starting college in August and taking care of her baby. Flippin wanted to graduate early because she wants to have everything moved and ready for college, also because she will have a baby and thinks that it would be harder to get all of her high school credits done.

Kylie Walker has planned on early graduation since her junior year when she made her schedule.  Walker is planning on attending State Fair Community College for a psychology degree. Walker has made this choice due to the fact that she will be able to stay close to home.

If you did what you were supposed to as a student since your freshman year and maintained good grades and a good GPA it is virtually impossible not to qualify to graduate early

— Kylie Walker