The idea of graduating early effortlessly intoxicates eager high school students; the concepts of freedom, higher education, and travel: what is there not to yearn for? At Silver Creek High School, these dreams are readily accomplishable. With a quick conversation between a student and their counselor, a diploma could come sooner than four years.

Students’ reasons for graduating early vary. Their impetus ranges from saving money for college assistance, traveling out of the country, or even earning college credits sooner.

However, arguably the most notable theme is desiring to seek life experiences. To learn things a school can not teach. Submerging oneself completely in another society’s lifestyle, learning their ways, and expanding cultural awareness.

For students like Elia Shaughnessy and Anna Scalf (both juniors), this is the very force driving their urge to put on the maroon robes of graduation.

“Next year, I’m going on a Rotary Youth Exchange to Sweden for my senior year!” Shaughnessy explains.

The joy, and anticipation, regarding her travels is evident in her voice. Although, it’s important to note this isn’t the early grad’s first international experience.

“I lived in Berlin, Germany for five years before starting high school at Silver Creek, and [I] really fell in love with living in Europe. I’ve always wanted to go back and I’ll probably stay abroad for university.”

This is a drastic life change, and it doesn’t come without trepidations. “I’m concerned about having difficulty making friends with the language barrier and I know I’m going to miss my family a lot,” Shaughnessy explains candidly.

The native tongue of Sweden has been causing her anxiety— stating: “School in Sweden will obviously be in a different language, so I’m going to have to learn how to overcome the language barrier before I actually learn anything.”

Though, through it all, Shaughnessy knows she has made the right decision in graduating early. Without an early diploma from Silver Creek in her junior year, she wouldn’t be able to experience the wonders and joys of studying abroad. Even though concerns have been expressed, Shaughnessy understands that this is an amazing opportunity. Closing with, “I’m very excited!”

Much like Shaughnessy, another student has dreams of exploration during her earned time. “I’m graduating early in order to set myself up for what I’m going to do later in life; and to get to go on this opportunity I have to visit family who live on a mission base in Africa’ explains Anna Scalf

This decision came naturally to Scalf. Her choice stemmed from familial, and personal influences.

“[My mom said] this could be such a great opportunity, and I [thought] this could be such a great opportunity! So, I got in contact with my aunt and we set it up.” Scalf informs. She then shared she has little anxiety regarding her choice, “ I’m mostly excited at this point! It still is kind of unusual, though.” The change will be drastic, but it is something that junior Anna Scalf anticipates with joy.

While the two juniors above seem similar in graduation reason, it is crucial to note that this isn’t always the case. There are many driving forces behind an early diploma, and many disparate types of students that counselor at Silver Creek , Michael Sardinia has assisted in this process.

“I don’t know that there’s any ‘typical’ early graduate student.” Sardinia begins. “Some are future college athletes, others are high achievers who want to be challenged by a college curriculum, some students have never really gotten into the whole high school scene so they won’t miss going to the football games or other school activities so they choose to leave.”

Furthermore, Sardinia explains that “…regardless of the reasons, I’m always open to having the conversation with students who want to graduate either a full year early or move on a semester early.” He furthers with, “This is a conversation that has to include the student’s family since they’ll need to sign off on it and will hopefully be supportive of the student’s decision if they’re doing it for valid reasons.”

Conclusively, graduating early at Silver Creek can benefit many different students. This is an amazing opportunity for juniors, or first-semester seniors, to accelerate their education; and, it’s even more amazing that the staff in the high school are so eager to assist such goals.