Abbie Campana is getting ready for her graduation open house on Saturday.

"I have a couple YSU friends coming, so I'm excited to see them," Campana said.

The celebration will be two-fold.

At just 17-years-old, Campana not only graduated from Lakeview High School but she also graduated from YSU. She's the first ever student from Lakeview to accomplish both in the same year.

In fact, she actually graduated from college BEFORE high school.

"It was huge holding two diplomas in my hand at Lakeview's graduation, that was crazy to me," Campana said. "It feels surreal in a way because I am the first to do it and I hope there will be many more after me."

Abbie started taking college credit plus classes at Lakeview her sophomore year, but quickly decided she wanted more and wanted to pursue an associates degree.

When Covid forced Lakeview into a hybrid learning situation, her family mapped out a plan to forgo traditional high school classes and she took classes full time at YSU. She liked it so much, she did it again her senior year. Best of all, it was all free through a program for high school students who qualify.

"Each class that I took from YSU, counted towards my diploma at Lakeview," Campana said.

She was able to earn the required 80 credit hours and graduated with honors and a 4.0 GPA. She earned an associates degree in Business Administration.

"Both my parents are working parents and I'm going to be paying for my own school so I got two years of free school under my belt and it also gave me the experience of being on a college campus before I were to go full swing out of town, I'm going to Bowling Green, so it gave me the full college experience and I was able to get two years of school under my belt without having to pay for it and both my parents work and they were telling me it would be much more rewarding if I were the one to push myself and do it myself and that's what I did," Campana said.

When asked how hard it was, Campana said it wasn't too bad.

"It was intimidating at first but no more difficult than the high school classes I was sitting in, in sophomore year," she said. "I will say I put in the work and I am a student who will always strive to push myself and reach the goals that I have set for myself which I exceeded with how I feel and graduating as valedictorian from Lakeview was a huge accomplishment that I was reaching for and then also with honors at YSU."

Her social life didn't suffer either, she still attended football games and other sporting events. She played softball from 9th through 11th grade. She was a member of National Honor Society and Senior Beta Club.

Abbie hopes her story will inspire others to also push themselves and get a jumpstart on their education.

"It's exciting because I feel like I have not heard, obviously I am the first at Lakeview, but I haven't heard very many stories like mine and I hope that getting the word out there allows for students to follow in my footsteps and kind of build their own path," Campana said.

Abbie will attend Bowling Green State University in the fall as a "freshman, but will be able to obtain her bachelors degree in Supply Chain Management in only three semesters.