Here at Lake Shore High School, seniors get an opportunity to graduate early if they have all the credits they need. 

The process for applying for early graduation is checking with your counselor to see if you have all your required credits and your grades are in good standing. After doing that, students get a form that they have to fill out. They must also write a short essay on what they will be doing when they graduate, how they will use your time, and how this will impact your life. After giving your essay to the counselors, they and the principal, Janelle Bross, will look it over. Depending on how you did in the past four years, and if you meet the requirements, you will more than likely get approved.  

As of right now there are about 15 seniors that are graduating early after the second trimester, just as well in the first trimester.

One student that graduated after the first trimester was Mia Naylor. She said that she graduated early for many reasons. 

Naylor said, “I had all my credits to graduate since junior year, so I was pretty much going to school to take classes that didn’t matter for me to take.” She also said that she lives far from the school and she was only taking two classes at Lake Shore because she is in the Dual Enrollment program. 

“The main reason why I graduated early is because I wanted to go to college full time for the winter semester which started in January,” Naylor explained. With the Dual Enrollment program she could only take two classes a semester at Macomb, but now that she dropped out of the program and is going full time to Macomb and taking four classes. 

Naylor also said, “I love early graduation because I get to do my own thing every day, and I was ready to be done with high school.” 

Another student that graduated after the first trimester was Maegen Bunch. She said that she decided to graduate early because she had all of her credits and allowed her to focus on the Early College program that she is enrolled in. The Early College program allows Bunch to take classes at Macomb and still take some at Lake Shore. Bunch is going to finish her last year at Macomb and then transfer to a four year college for her bachelors in media productions. 

John Sams, who plans on graduating after second trimester, said, “I decided to graduate early because I wanted to get a head start on my life out of high school such as further education in the trades and start working full time as soon as possible.” 

Sams plans on attending Macomb Community College for the pre-builders license class, intro. to business, and business communication. He will also be starting his job working at Civic Ice Arena as a basic maintenance employee working on the ice and the building. 

Tatiana Sawka decided to graduate after second trimester because she wants to train for the police academy and work more. “I will be able to save money and really get my life started,” she explained. She is taking classes at Macomb right now for criminal justice, but she plans on taking more classes like that after she graduates. 

Katlyn Griessel decided to graduate after second trimester because it will give her “more time to raise money in order to pay for college.” She explained that school and working at the same time stresses her out but she cannot quit her job because she needs the money for college. 

On top of that Griessel also hopes graduating early will help her focus on herself a little more. “So graduating early will hopefully improve my mental health a lot,” Griessel said. Also in her free time she will be volunteering with the Red Cross. 

Grace Lipinski and Amari Kellam decided to graduate after second trimester because they want to focus on working more, so they have more money to pay for college and other expenses. They both intend on working full time and saving their money for college and that time off from school will allow them to do just that. 

Early graduation is a good opportunity for students that have all of their credits that they need to graduate with, and they can get a headstart in their adulting life.