The last day of school is just around the corner for seniors Jennafer Schoonover, Francesca Mascaro, Cammie Crotta, and Mercedes Sosa Cordero, four students who will be graduating early this year.
Schoonover, who will graduate at the end of the first semester, said she had began planning for an early graduation during her junior year.
“My mom is moving for work in Sacramento, so it seemed like the best option for me to graduate early so I don’t have to switch schools and try to transfer credits and graduate somewhere else,” Schoonover said.
Schoonover currently works at a movie theater and will be continuing this line of work in Sacramento as well as taking several courses at a community college to fulfill her lab science requirements.
To meet Redwood’s graduation requirements, Schoonover doubled up in English and science during her junior year. To fill her social studies credits this year, she is taking Government and both regular Economics and AP Economics for additional credits.
Despite completing her requirements early, Schoonover still plans to apply for college with the rest of her class and attend next fall.
“My mom supports this because she thinks it’s the best option, and I do too. I feel like I am ready,” Schoonover said.
Like Schoonover, Crotta will also graduate this winter. Instead of directly transferring to a community college next semester, Crotta has decided to embark on a road trip with a friend through Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, and Washington.
Crotta says that she will be attending a community college in either Los Angeles or Colorado next fall.
“I plan to finish my math and science requirements there and then transfer to a 4-year college,” Crotta said.
Likewise, Mascaro plans on moving to Washington and attending a community college there.
“I thought about graduating early ever since freshman year, but I didn’t really start getting into that until junior year when I asked my counselor,” Mascaro said.
Unlike Mascaro, Cordero skipped her entire junior year, jumping directly from being a sophomore to a senior.
“It happened by accident. I took U.S. history, science fiction, and essay exposition, which were all extra classes I didn’t technically need as a sophomore,” Cordero said.
Cordero had originally planned to remain at Redwood for all four years, however after talking with her counselor she discovered she could graduate a full year earlier.
“When I was seeing my counselor, I was trying to see if I could take four classes junior year and four classes senior year. It turned out I had already met all my requirements, and I was very surprised,” Cordero said.
Cordero plans to go to College of Marin for two years in order to complete her general education requirements and then she plans on transferring to a UC.
As for being in an entirely different grade level with new peers, Cordero said she felt indifferent about the situation.
“I’m more focused on my classes and completing them, not as much who I’m taking the classes with or being with a different group of people,” Cordero said.
