Avon student’s plan realized at LCCC

Anna Lewis wanted a challenge.

So the incoming Avon High School freshman asked her parents if she could enroll in a Lorain County Community College class through the College Credit Plus program.

Her parents, Dell-Ann and Ron, were familiar with College Credit Plus because their older daughters had taken a few LCCC classes in high school.

They were a bit hesitant to let Anna start College Credit Plus courses at such a young age, but knew Anna always had been academically oriented.

“So, we told her to figure out what classes she wanted to take her freshman year,” Ron Lewis said.

From the very first course – Introduction to Psychology – Anna knew she was on the right path.

“I fell in love with it,” she said of the College Credit Plus program. “I knew that taking college classes throughout the rest of my high school career was right for me.”

But it wasn’t a stressfree road; not that Anna expected it to be.

“Taking college classes in high school is not meant to be easy,” she said. “It took me a while to get used to the coursework and the time required.”

And as Anna’s course load and difficulty level increased, so did her involvement in extra-curricular activities. At one point, Anna was on three cheerleading squads, president of the high school SADD club, working part-time and doing volunteer work. To do it all, she took classes online, on campus and over the summer. That meant spending more time in her room studying and less time with her friends. “There were times when Anna would get tired of studying all the time or get frustrated when she was taking a more challenging class,” her mother said. “We would remind her that she was a 14- or 15-year-old girl taking college level classes. “We told her to just do her best.” In addition to her parents and sisters, Anna leaned on the student services office at Avon High School and her professors and academic advisor at LCCC for encouragement and guidance.

And it was during a meeting with her advisor, Andrea Horning, that Anna could see – on paper – herself closing in on her goal.

“She told me that if I kept on track, I would earn my associate of science degree by the time I graduated high school,” Anna said. And that wasn’t all. She also learned she was just one course shy of earning an associate degree in arts, too.

Anna plans to take that course this summer to earn her second associate degree in August.

“I am super excited,” she said. “It’s been a very long journey to get here, and I am proud of myself that I made a goal, stuck to it and achieved it.”

Anna Lewis