Heads of Their Class

Springfield siblings Sam and Abby Clark, both home-schooled, will enroll in MIT in the fall.
By Glenn McCarty
July 20, 2005


Photo by Glenn McCarty/The Connection
Sam Clark and sister Abby of Springfield have been dual-enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College. They finished their homeschooled high school career this spring and will both enroll at MIT in the fall.


Graduation at the Clark home in Springfield was a low-key affair in June. Although two children, Sam, 17, and Abby, 15, both were ending their high school careers, the two homeschooled students were already beginning to think about the next step in their academic journey ó enrolling as freshman in the fall at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"We're a very free-flowing family. We just kind of glided into preparing for MIT in the fall," said the students' mother, Katarina.
Not that graduation wasn't a cause for excitement. The Clark siblings have been homeschooled for their entire school careers, and this will be the first time they move away from Northern Virginia.
To get college-ready, the Clarks have both been dual-enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) for several semesters. This spring, they finished their community college education by taking Organic Chemistry II and University Physics together. Sam began at NVCC in the spring of 2003, at the age of 15, when he took General Chemistry. Abby joined him for Organic Chemistry I and University Physics a year later, at the age of 14.