Brigham girl gets big jump on college

BRIGHAM CITY — She makes it sound like child's play.

Camellia Williams graduated from Intech Collegiate High School in Logan last week. Not only was she her class valedictorian, she received a $10,000 scholarship from Emerson Corporation toward her college education.

She also just earned her associate degree from Utah State University's Brigham City campus.

And she's only 15.

So when Camellia, the daughter of Alan and Brenna Williams of Brigham City, begins classes at the Logan campus this fall, she will jump right into the courses required for a degree in biochemical engineering.

"You just have to balance your time," she said. "Some semesters you'll have no life. You have to put everything else off."

Even so, Camellia — who will turn 16 next week — has managed to acquire a lot of experiences, and she has a wide array of interests. Over the past three years, the list of extracurricular activities and clubs she participated in has been long: bowling, chess, drama, flag football, geology, paleontology, archaeology and soccer. She is a member of the National Honor Society and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

She has tutored math and science and attended the Teton Science School on a scholarship. She was once active in dance and performed in a local production of "The Nutcracker," but she gave up dance one semester when she had a particularly heavy course load.

As a student, Williams has carried as many as 28 credits, but she didn't sleep much then, so she is learning what her limits are. Williams said she is very comfortable with about 15 credits, but usually takes 19 to 21. A college student must be enrolled for a minimum of 12 credits to be considered a full-time student.

In addition to her formal studies, Williams has also taken part in a biochemical engineering internship at USU, where she has developed a fascination with big words that many adults can't spell, glowing jellyfish and the possibilities they present for the future of medicine.

"Science is really just experimenting," she said. "We are always discovering new things."

Despite the time and brain cells devoted to school and scientific study, Williams remains what she is — a normal teenage girl enamored with her boyfriend, who pushes the boundaries set by her parents and would rather party with her friends than travel with her family.

There were several factors that made it possible for Williams to obtain both her high school diploma and her associate degree early. As a child, Williams' mother, Brenna, enrolled her daughter in Christian charter schools that allowed her to move at her own pace. She didn't skip ahead, but moved from one grade to the next as the work was completed, rather than the traditional year-to-year basis.

Once she reached high school, Williams was enrolled in Intech Collegiate High School, a charter school in Logan that not only meets the same education requirements set by the state of Utah, but also offers students the opportunity to advance by taking AP classes, concurrent enrollment and an early college program.

E-mail: amy@benewsjournal.com