Teen graduates college before high school

Posted Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 8:57 pm


By Paul Alongi
STAFF WRITER
palongi@greenvillenews.com

Danielle 'Dani' Smith, 17 will graduate from Greenville Tech prior to her high school graduation. Staff/Ken Osburn

Dani Smith marched into the Bi-Lo Center on Tuesday and turned academia's usual order on its head, taking home a college degree two weeks before her high school graduation.

Smith, 17, picked up her associate's degree in human services, as Greenville Technical College graduated more than 1,600 students, its largest class ever.

The teen grad flip-flopped the system by going to summer school and taking classes that count toward both college and high school graduation.

"My mom's trying to get me to have my master's before I'm 21," she said with a laugh.

The students marched into the arena to "Pomp and Circumstance." Among them was a beaming Donna Edwards, who planned to start a Laundromat after picking up her associate's degree in marketing.

"This is it," she said. "I'm going out into the real world."

The next ceremony for Smith will be on May 28 when she receives her diploma from Greenville Technical Charter High.

When she leaves for Winthrop University, Smith will already be a sophomore or junior. She plans to study social work and hopes to have her master's degree in less time than it takes most students to earn a bachelor's degree.

Principal Fred Crawford called Smith a "trailblazer." In the three years the charter school has graduated seniors, Smith is the first to receive a college degree before a high school diploma, he said.

"She's a bright girl," Crawford said in an interview. "She's just applied herself."

James L. Hudgins, president of the state Technical and Comprehensive Education Board, sent off the graduates with quotes from Mark Twain, "The Wizard of Oz" and Abraham Lincoln's mother.

"Be somebody," Hudgins said. "Achieve your potential."

Smith hopes to be an addictions or domestic violence counselor after college.

Her meteoric rise goes back to middle school. After attending Hillcrest Middle for 6th and 7th grades, she whipped through 8th grade over a summer by taking home school courses.

Smith was in college by the time she was 13, sometimes sitting alongside students three times her age.

She also found time to be student body president, volunteer for a student mentor program and work part-time as a shift leader at a Haywood Road sandwich shop. Last semester, she squeezed in an internship at the state Department of Social Services.

"A lot of times it was really stressful," she said. "But now that it's all over, it's really paying off. Now, I can look back and say it was all worth it."

Paul Alongi can be reached at 298-4746.

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