Many 16-year-old students are thinking about proms or obtaining their driver’s licenses at this time of year.
A north Texas teen, however, is going from being home-schooled to law school.
Haley Taylor Schlitz, of Fort Worth, was accepted into Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, KDFW reported.
Schlitz, 16, graduated from high school when she was 13 and attended Texas Woman's College, the television station reported. She will graduate from college in May with associate and bachelor's degrees; SMU was one of nine law schools that accepted Schlitz, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Schlitz will attend a six-day program with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington for incoming law students, Texas Lawyer reported.
Schlitz's parents took her out of public schools in the fifth grade and began home-schooling her, the ABA Journal reported.
"I was just being taught to pass the end-of-the-year test to get to the next grade," Schlitz told Texas Lawyer. "I wasn't being taught to learn."
When Schlitz was not allowed to take a test to enter the gifted program in public schools, her parents had her tested privately and discovered she was gifted, the teen told Texas Lawyer.
"Home-schooling helped me go at my own pace and thrive on my own terms, Schlitz told the Morning News. "I was able to skip what I knew and do what's at my intellectual level."
According to her website, Schlitz attended Tarrant County College in 2016-2017 and entered the Texas Woman's College in Denton in 2017.
In addition to working toward a law degree, Schlitz has also written a book. "The Homeschool Alternative," published in January, was co-written by Schlitz and her mother, Myiesha Taylor, who calls herself a "professional student" who graduated from Xavier University in Louisiana and the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. She is a board-certified emergency room physician.
The book teaches families about the benefits of homeschooling and what kind of mindset students need to succeed, according to the book's website.
Home-schooling helped Schlitz get into law school, and she believes others can follow the same blueprint.
"I feel like there are a lot of students who can do what I did," Schlitz told the Morning News. "Obviously, it's not impossible because I did it and I'm not a super genius.
“I work very hard but I’m not out of reach."
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