Girl Finishes High School and College at the Same Time

One former student is giving new meaning to the phrase “killing two birds with one stone.” Antonette White pulled off the remarkable feat of graduating high school and college at the same time. “Huh?” you’re saying right now.

White, 17, told TODAY that she never planned on graduating from both schools at the same time, but that it just worked out that way.

For White, college had always been second nature. When she was a child growing up on the Cayman Islands, she would attend the sociology lectures taught by her father, Anthony White.

They moved to Peoria, Illinois, when White was 13 and her father began teaching at Illinois Central College.

He then decided to test her math and English skills to see if she could qualify to enter the college, she could, and once he had permission from the dean, White started taking night classes.

“We took it extremely slow at first,” White’s father told TODAY. “She started off with just one class, an entry-level English class, and it went from there.”

White said she had to make sure she was never over-doing it.

“I had to find a balance that worked well where I was completing all my classes,” she said.

According to TODAY, White still found time for vacations with her family and hanging out with friends, and never took more than two college classes a semester.

She graduated high school with a 3.9 GPA and college with a 3.6 and her associate’s.

“I didn’t want it to get too overwhelming,” she said. “I wanted some ‘me’ time where I could go to Starbucks or the movies with my friends. I never felt like I was being dragged down by my work.”

Now, she plans on entering Illinois State University as a junior and majoring in international business.