Canton 10-year-old is a college student

Darryl Owens CANTON —

Jr. and his son walked into Stark State College to meet with a professor.

When the professor emerged from her office, she began talking to them about the ongoing class and directed questions to Owens.

But he quickly redirected her, “Oh, no, you’re looking for my son.” He pointed to 9-year-old Darryl Elijah Owens III. “It kind of threw her for a loop because he was so young,” the elder Owens recalled.

Elijah, now 10, of Canton is the youngest student ever enrolled at Stark State College, college officials said.

He’s also uncommon as a student because he’s one of 27 homeschooled students who learn together at Cross Over Academy. Darryl Owens Jr. is the founder and administrator of Cross Over Academy, which began in August 2017.

Headed to college

Of the 15 upper-level students in Cross Over’s incoming class, seven of them, ranging in age from 10 to 18, are expected to be enrolled at Stark State by this fall.

They’re enrolled through Ohio’s College Credit Plus program, which allows college-ready middle school and high school students to take college courses for credit that also counts toward their high school graduation.

Owens wants Cross Over students to graduate with a college degree in hand. He determines which students are ready for college-level work based on his observations in the classroom.

“Once they can show me through a full year that they are ready, then we start to have those conversations for them to go to Stark State,” Owens said.

Owens said he’s encouraging the students to apply to Stark State because it is a local community college, which traditionally costs less than universities. While public schools pay for the college classes their students attend through College Credit Plus, students at Cross Over must pay for their own classes.

First class

Elijah is the second student from Cross Over to enroll at Stark State. Khatequa Petty began taking classes last year while a senior at Cross Over. She’s now in her second year at Stark State as a 17-year-old.

Elijah is taking College and Career Success Skills, a threecredit-hour online course to reinforce skills such as punctuality and self-discipline as well as teach techniques for studying, test-taking and problem solving.

“It’s pretty easy, but the first two to three weeks were hard,” Elijah admitted, saying it took him a while to establish a routine so he could finish each week’s assignments. He currently has an A.

He plans to take courses in history and public speaking in the fall in addition to his regular high school classes at Cross Over.