Only one of the 285 seniors at KHS graduated early — Abbi Mezey.

Mezey had considered graduating early since she discussed that option with her counselor at the end of her junior year.

“I was debating whether I wanted to do a whole senior year and get that experience or just be done as soon as I could,” Mezey said.

Mr. Craig Golembiewski, Mezey’s guidance counselor, said that anywhere from zero to five students decide to graduate early each year.

The only requirements to graduate early are having a total of 22 credits, a fourth year of math and English, and a valid score on the Michigan Merit Exam.

Mezey decided to take an English course at Mott Community College over the summer before her senior year. Doing this allowed her to take only one semester of senior English.

To get around the fourth year math requirement, Mezey took accounting and Algebra II during the first semester of her senior year.

Mezey had to do everything in the senior English syllabus for the first semester, including all of the essays for the senior project.

Since Mezey did not have to take second semester senior English, she did not have to finish or present her senior project.

Seniors who are on track to graduate early are able to use their exam exemptions on first semester exams, so Mezey did just that. Mezey only had to take some of her exams on Jan. 20.

Mezey’s last day was Jan. 21 after her exams.

Graduating early is, basically, a break from the second semester. Students who graduate early still get to walk and receive their diplomas at commencement with the rest of the Senior Class.

Unfortunately, graduating early has some drawbacks.

“Once a student is coded as a ‘graduate,’ then he or she is an alumnus and no longer qualifies to participate in extracurricular activities through KHS,” Golembiewski said. “However, the exception to this rule is all of the end-of-year senior activities, including prom, Class Day, and commencement.”

Early graduates can still be valedictorian, salutatorian, or part of the top 10, but doing so is harder for them because they have one less semester of taking AP courses to boost their GPAs.

Mezey does not mind missing out on second semester activities because she “didn’t really like high school” and she is “glad to get done faster.”

Now that she has graduated, Mezey plans on working more and saving her money for college in the fall.

As for completing eight semesters of high school in seven, Mezey said it was not as difficult as some people may think.

“It really wasn’t that hard. Anybody, honestly, could probably (graduate early),” Mezey said.