Three home-schooled students finished this academic year with a high school diploma and a Lone Star College-CyFair associate degree.

Thanks to their hard work at home and success in the college’s Dual Credit program, Jillian Linton, Elora Molloy and Amber Parker were among LSC-CyFair’s largest graduating class with more than 2,300 students.

“I may have walked into my first college class as a scared 15 year old, but I walked across the stage (May 13) as a confident and accomplished young woman ready to pursue my dreams thanks to my experience at Lone Star College,” said Linton.

In addition to finishing core requirements before pursuing a baccalaureate degree, Dual Credit allowed Linton to work part time. With a passion for theatre arts, this singer, actor, pianist and guitarist, has been accepted into the Honors College at Texas State University where she will pursue a BFA in Performance and Production.

Taken out of public school as a sophomore to begin home-schooling as well as enrolling in Dual Credit was challenging for Molloy, particularly since she was also a Student Ambassador and on the Students of Diverse Abilities and Phi Theta Kappa officer teams. However, this Peer Leader said it felt gratifying to graduate with a diploma and a degree.

Attending Dual Credit for “was a chance to see if I could be capable of competing with higher standards than the ones I had originally set for myself,” said Molloy. With a belief that in order for students to learn, they need to be challenged and treated like adults, her goal is to teach history at the high school and college levels. 

“It feels good to have a head start on the pathway to my career and to have accomplished so much at a young age,” said Parker, who is now working toward earning her BSN. “A community college is a great value for starting one's education.”

Interested in a fulfilling career helping people like her great grandmother and uncle, Parker would like to go to medical school or become a nurse practitioner. A Phi Theta Kappa member, she is currently finishing prerequisites at LSC-CyFair before applying to UTMB Galveston and UT Health Science Center Houston in January.

These graduates said being homeschooled had many advantages, such as being able to focus on schoolwork without distractions or busywork,  one-on-one teaching and learning at their own pace, to name a few. They also agreed their time at LSC-CyFair was a positive experience with great professors, helpful counselors and staff as well as involvement in campus life.

For information on the Dual Credit go to LoneStar.edu/dualcredit, call 281.290.3426 or visit a high school counselor. Registration is under way at LSC-CyFair for summer sessions that begin June 5 and July 13 as well as the fall semester, which begins Aug. 28. For information, go to LoneStar.edu/registration.