Unlike many 16 year olds who are winding down their years in high school, Haley Taylor Schlitz is gearing up to start law school in the fall, reports the ABA Journal.
The teen, who is currently a student at Texas Woman’s University, has already been accepted by nine different law schools into their 1L class. This May, she will graduate with both an associate’s degree and a bachelor’s degree and will attend a six-day summer program with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, D.C. Afterwards, she will enroll in law school at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law.
She tells Texas Lawyer that she graduated high school at the tender age of 13 after her parents began to homeschool her in the fifth grade due to their unhappiness with her public school education.
“I was just being taught to pass the end-of-the-year test to get to the next grade,” she says. “I wasn’t being taught to learn.”
Additionally, Schlitz says she was not allowed to take the test to enter the gifted program in her school, fueling her parent’s desire to have her tested privately where they found out that she was indeed gifted.
After completing high school, the then 13-year-old enrolled into a community college before starting her studies at Texas Woman’s University. She explains that her experience as a person of color who was denied a chance to test into her school’s gifted program “sparked a fire” in her to become a lawyer and help fight inequality. Additionally, she says, she’s also interested in intellectual property and may consider studying law in that area.
Higher education and the pursuit of excellence appear to be the norm in the Schlitz household, as her 13-year-old brother, Ian Schlitz, is already on track to follow in his sister’s footsteps. At thirteen, he’s already a college freshman and will be headed to a four year university in the fall.