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14-year-old Ashburn girl heads to college
"It's so unfair I have to wait to go to college. I want to go now!"
Those are the words Catherine Jones' mother, Sue, remembers Catherine saying four years ago when she was just 10 years old.
Catherine didn't have to wait as long as she feared.
The recent graduate of Belmont Ridge Middle School will realize her dream this fall. The 14-year-old will attend Mary Baldwin College in Staunton through the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted, which accepts girls as young as rising eighth-graders.
It's the only program like it in the country, said Sue Jones, and it is perfect for her daughter.
"I was not challenged at all in middle school," Catherine said. "I'd learn so quickly I would know it as soon as the teacher said it. Then I'd have to wait for the other kids to catch up and sit through two days of learning. I got really bored."
Jones said her daughter's principal, Timothy Flynn, and several teachers were behind Catherine's decision to skip her four years at Stone Bridge High School and go straight to college.
Catherine scored in the 99th percentile among eighth-graders nationwide on her Iowa Basic Schools Test, Jones said.
After applying to the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted and receiving a scholarship, she is excited to take the next step in life.
Catherine said the only thing she'll miss about high school is her friends from home, but she isn't worried about never going to homecoming or her senior prom.
"[Mary Baldwin] has dances and mixers, and they'll have social events too," Catherine said.
Mary Baldwin has about 800 students in the undergraduate program.
Catherine will take classes with other college students but she'll live in a dormitory especially for students in her program, which usually serves about 25 girls each year.
She already has been paired up with her roommate, a girl from Oakland, Calif.
Catherine said she is looking forward to going to college about two and a half hours away and seeing what it's like to be challenged in school.
She plans to major in biology. For her first semester, she'll take biology, chemistry, art, philosophy and English, a class needed to satisfy the high school requirement.
Her mom said supervision at the school is pretty strict since the students are still minors, and she's confident it's the best thing for her daughter.
"She's ready," she said. "She's always been very focused about what she wants, and all I see from her now is excitement. She's ready to go."
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com
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