My Academic Story
My academic story is pretty simple. I went to a public school in California until I was in 4th grade. By 5th grade I remained in the same public school district, however, I began charter school. My parents made the switch to charter school due to the No Child Left Behind Act. While this is beneficial for some, it wasn’t for me. I often was very bored in class waiting days and weeks for my classmates to understand a concept so we could move on. The charter school allowed me to go at my own pace, manage my time and focus on my studies.
Homeschool Through Public Charter Schools
The charter school was still public, and I was required to take all state testing and meet all state requirements. I had a teacher who oversaw all my subjects, tested me, and gave me grades. I did 90% of my schoolwork at home and the other 10% on campus in classes. By the middle of my 7th-grade year, my teacher suggested that I begin college classes at the local community college because my teacher was having a hard time challenging me and I was consuming my studies very quickly.
It took some convincing to get my parents to agree. But they agreed to “test the waters” with a ceramics class at the beginning of my 8th-grade year. They wanted something that was fun and not very academic. They worried if I took a class that was too challenging, I might be turned off by college. That class was the beginning of my college career.
Concurrent Enrollment
By 9th grade, I was taking college and high school concurrently. I began with general education classes that counted for both core high school graduation requirements and college general education requirements. By 10th grade, I had taken the first class that was actually in my major, Introduction to Business. It was upon completion of this class that I knew I would major in Business Administration. I graduated high school at 16, a year and a half early due to the nearly 40 college credits I had taken during high school.
After high school, I continued to go to the community college full-time, Butte Community College, where I received my AS Degree in Business Administration at 17. I transferred to a local 4-year university, California State University, Sacramento, where I earned my BS in Business Entrepreneurship at 19. The semester following graduation, I went straight into the Master’s Program, a 2-year program for full-time students, I completed the program in 18 months, receiving my MBA in Entrepreneurship and Global Business at 20. While in the Master’s Program, I worked 60+ hours a week for a Fortune 500 company, opening one of their $500 million properties. By 21, I was promoted within the same company to a management position and asked to open another one of their half-a-billion-dollar properties. I had my own office and staff and I was one of the highest educated staff members.
Graduating College With No Loans
I was able to get through college without a single student loan. My education wasn’t completely paid for by anyone, not by my parents or anyone else. I didn’t have a college savings account (529) and I never received financial aid. I’ve earned three degrees and never filled out FAFSA once. I graduated debt-free by making wise decisions and pushing myself to be academically and financially prudent. I will share with you the key decisions and strategies to graduating college efficiently so you can utilize them too.
—Sensei
