Ahead of the curve
Bloom Trail senior will get a college degree just days before high school graduation
Micaela Cunningham is still in high school, but she’s already taken a major step toward a career in medicine.
She’s earned an associate degree in pre-dentistry, even as she’s juggled honors courses at Bloom Trail High School and extracurricular activities.
For Cunningham, who lives in Steger, it was a way to take care of some health credits and fast track her goal of becoming a gynecologist.
“I love helping people and always liked doing that since I was younger,” she said. “I was scared to be a doctor and said I’ll just be a dentist, but then I was like, I’m going to face my fear and do what I want to do.”
With time on her hands amid the pandemic and following advice from her mom, Cunningham began taking courses at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights. She was up to the challenge and will be walking across the stage at two graduation ceremonies in May. She is graduating cum laude from Prairie State as a member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society with a spot on the All-Illinois Academic Team May 24. Four days later, she’ll graduate with honors from Bloom Trail.
Cunningham has been accepted at eight universities and offered scholarships from the University of Illinois at Urbana and Illinois State University. She’s still decided where she will pursue her further undergraduate studies.
At Prairie State, she particularly enjoyed studying medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, biology and psychology.
“It helped me learn about the human development of people, which is helpful if you’re going to become a doctor,” said Cunningham, who has five siblings.
At Bloom Trail, she’s been a student ambassador, member of the National Honor Society and student council. Outside of school, she’s volunteered in the youth ministry and summer camp at Victory Apostolic Church in
Matteson, the family’s longtime church and site of the Prairie State graduation in May.
Cunningham also worked as a secretary at an insurance company during the summer, and when she has time, she enjoys baking, doing hair and taekwondo.
But education has always come first. Her mother, Marileen
Cunningham, who has a doctorate in education and encouraged her daughter to take advanced courses, taught special education at Rich Township High School District 227 for a number of years. Her father, James Cunningham, has been an elementary school teacher at Chicago Heights School District 170 for 20 years.
“Micaela already had a strong work ethic,” her mother said. “It was not something we needed to stay on top of her with.”
Her parents are proud of her success and desire to be a doctor. Marileen Cunningham said her daughter also has the necessary intangibles.
“I think that with physicians, a lot of times their bedside manner is not there,” she said. “But Micaela has that. She’s very outgoing and very compassionate towards other people. I think that is very key to anyone in the medical field.”
Samantha Reda, teacher and literacy coach at Bloom Trail called her student “very hardworking, studious and driven,” and said she also has the right attitude to achieve anything she wants to.
Her dual graduation ceremonies coming in May are “pretty incredible,” she said.
“Seeing Micaela in the hallway, she always has a smile on her face,” Reda said. “Not only is she a leader, she is a supportive leader. I think it’s something where we’re excited to see what she’s going to do next.”