‘2 years under my belt:’ Jamestown student graduates from both high school and college in May

JAMESTOWN, N.D. — On Wednesday, April 26, Jamestown Excessive Faculty senior McKenna Barnick had a bit occasion planning on doing.

“The cap and robe are each blue,” Barnick stated as she walked together with her mother and her highschool counselor Julie Skunberg.

Barnick did spring promenade, within the snow in fact, and he or she loved all that’s a part of her senior yr in highschool, however she has additionally been busy incomes 60 school credit.

“I’ve recognized what I needed to do for a number of years, and I’ve all the time simply kinda been an overachiever,” Barnick stated.

She graduates Might 12 at Lake Area State Faculty in Devils Lake, and Might 28 from highschool.

“I simply needed to get forward. I knew it could save me cash,” she stated.

If Barnick had paid for these lessons on campus, it could have price round $45,000. As a substitute, it price her $9,000 and he or she used her personal cash.

“As we have charted all of this out, she’s been conscious of how a lot it price, what number of hours that might take to work to pay that off,” Skunberg stated.

Barnick labored not less than two jobs to get the cash to pay for faculty lessons, even taking lessons in the summertime.

“I imply I’d say that I’ve grown up shortly, there is no denying that. You’ll be able to ask my mother and father, they are saying that too,” she stated.

Barnick additionally performs piano for nursing residence residents and is lively in 4H. Now she is headed to the College of North Dakota, however not as a freshman.

“So I will be beginning at UND subsequent fall as a junior. (I) bought two years beneath my belt,” she stated.

She plans on finishing her pre-medical coaching at UND earlier than medical faculty.