Too young to drive, 15-year-old heads to college

By RACHEL TAPLEY
Staff Writer

Unlike most students who are clinging to their last weeks of summer break, Brittany "Nikki" Griffitts of Danville is excited about going back to school. She's 15, but she won't be returning to high school. Nikki is enrolled at Eastern Kentucky University as a freshman.

"I'm eager to get to EKU," she says. "I'm also kind of nervous."

Nikki attended Boyle County High School for ninth grade and part of 10th grade. She then switched to homeschooling and completed all of her homeschooling curriculum in a year. So, having earned her homeschool diploma, she took the ACT and applied to EKU. The application process was the same as if she had graduated from public school at the age of 18, and Nikki was accepted.

Art is her passion, and she plans to become an art teacher after college.

"Art has always meant a lot to me," she says. "It's my way of expressing my emotions and saying things that would've otherwise been difficult to put into words."

Nikki wants to become a teacher because of the good teachers she has had. "It was influences like Mr. Camic, Mrs. Preston, Mr. Warren, Mrs. Wilson, and Mr. McKee that made me want to be a teacher," she says, listing the names of some of her teachers at Boyle County High School.