A 16-year-old earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from a south Florida university just days before her high school graduation, Reuters reported.
Grace Bush will graduate from Florida Atlantic University High School on May 9. However, she will already be heading back to Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton for a master's degree in public administration before seeking a law degree.
In order to fulfill her parents' cost-saving plan on tuition, Grace began to take college classes at 13 and finished the college degree in three years after enrolling in summer sessions.
According to Reuters, home-schooled until 13 with her eight siblings, Grace began reading around the age of 2, her mother Gisla Bush said.
"I sat her in my lap and read to her every day for a few minutes so I could move on to do what I needed to do with my other kids," Bush said. "Then one day I saw her reading by herself and from that point on she did everything her other sisters did."
Although she is third of her siblings to combine high school and college, she ranks as the youngest in completing both degrees.
"The family's home schooling and early graduation came as much out of financial need as it did from the daughters' stunning abilities," Reuters reported. "They discovered they could take college credits at FAU while studying at the high school on campus, saving both time and money."
"Everything was paid for, tuition, books, transportation. That was our benefit," Gisla Bush, 49, a full-time mother, said.
Grace leads a hectic schedule which starts at 5:30 a.m. and drifts to the late hours of the night. Apart from taking both high school and college classes, she also plays the flute in two orchestras.
"Ultimately I would like to become a Supreme Court justice ... but between law school and that I'm not sure what I'll do," she said.
