DeKalb senior to make western Bowie County history with dual diplomas
On Friday, May 28, DeKalb High School senior Kyla Barnes will become the first student from a district in western Bowie County to graduate high school with an associate degree already in hand.
Barnes received her Associate of Arts Degree with Highest Honors earlier this month and is set to graduate high school with a 4.0 grade point average. She is one of 41 students from Texarkana College to achieve this feat in the past 12 years.
Starting on the associate degree track as a sophomore by taking Dual Credit courses through TC, Barnes took summer and night classes throughout high school to get ahead. However, she said she actually didn’t consider following through on this until last year.
“I didn’t make the choice until COVID hit,” Barnes said. “I was still taking those courses, but I was not really planning on getting my Associate’s Degree at the time.”
Devoting all of this extra time was no easy task, as Barnes is involved with various groups and organizations in DeKalb. She is involved in Band, the Majorettes, Future Farmers of America, KORDS (a local community service organization) and National Honor Society.
After graduating high school, she plans on going to Texas Tech during the fall and spring semesters. She says she will graduate from there within the next year and then go into a four-year doctorate program to become a pharmacist.
From there, Barnes plans on interning for three years, before becoming an oncology pharmacist.
“I think it’s really just about saving time for me,” she said. “I like the fact that I’m going to get all of this done by the time I’m 23 and be a doctor by that time. And then I can be a pharmacist by the time I’m 26, making more money than I would have if I just would’ve waited. This is just giving me more time to save money and build a better retirement for myself.”
Barnes credited and thanked a few people for helping her get to this point. She shouted out Dr. Donna McDaniel, who is the vice president of instruction at TC, as well as Clayton Little, Lea Dooley and all of the DeKalb staff for allowing her to engage in Dual Credit classes.