Photo courtesy: 21st Century Charter School
18-year-old Raven Osborne is far from your average high school senior. While she will be graduating high school with Indiana’s 21st Century Charter School’s class of 2017 later this month, there’s something she will receive before getting her high school diploma: a college degree.
Raven, who said she was “labeled with a learning disability” as a child, started taking classes at a community college during her freshman year. Soon after, she earned her associates degree in general studies. Then, with the support of her mother and her school’s president and superintendent, Kevin Teasley, Raven made it her mission to become the school’s first student ever to obtain a bachelor’s degree while still being enrolled.
Taking college and high school classes simultaneously didn’t come without its struggles. Raven had to resign from her job at a daycare, where she watched babies for parents who worked the night shift, saying “it just got to be too stressful”. However, every time she wanted to quit taking college classes, she held on to her mother’s consistent words of encouragement to keep going.
“My mother always told me I could do whatever I wanted to do in life,” said Raven, who will now be graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in early childhood education from Purdue University Northwest on Friday, May 5. Raven will graduate from high school on May 22.
On top of soon earning both her college degree and high school diploma in the same month, Raven has also secured a full time job as an early intervention teacher at her school.
Congratulations, Raven! Thanks for reminding us all that there’s no dream too big to achieve.