Danielle Pflum

While still enjoying the glory days of high school, Danielle Pflum was planning to get a head start on her college courses with her sights set on a career in the near future. 

Participating in a homeschool program, Pflum’s day-to-day teacher was her mother, Debra. However, she also took part in a co-operative homeschool in which she worked with other students in a classroom setting with a dedicated instructor, providing her the best of both worlds. Of her experience in the co-op program, she says it has helped her to excel in her classes, as well as introduced her to RACC’s Early Admissions Program. Early Admissions is available to students who are academically accelerated and want to earn college credit while nishing high school. A few of her classmates were taking advantage of the program, so she convinced her parents that she would be able to achieve a higher-paying job sooner, save money by taking courses on-campus close to home and hold her job as a waitress. 

Taking advantage of Early Admissions allowed Pflum the jump start she craved and enabled her to try courses before deciding what program she wanted to dive into. Pflum says that she found it easy to adjust to the college atmosphere in just a few weeks. She realized right away that she was not the only one who came from a different background. Some of her classmates were older students, returning to school in order to start a new career in a different eld. Even though she had never studied in a traditional academic environment, Pflum connected with her peers and valued the enrichment they provided. 

Although a great experience, it was also hard work. Pflum spent time between classes studying in the library and often stayed up late in order to make sure that assignments would get done on time. Her hard work and determination is paying off as she is anticipating graduating from the Medical Laboratory Technician Program a year earlier than her peers. 

Pflum’s current goal is to nd an internship at a local hospital, which will allow her to start gaining work experience during her time between work and classes. After graduating, she is hoping to secure a job as a Medical Laboratory Technician before pursuing a bachelor’s degree down the road. Thanks to Early Admissions Program at RACC she is well on her way to achieving that goal. 

“Why wouldn’t you take advantage of Early Admissions,” questions Pflum. “If you’re already doing extra and accelerated coursework, why not get college credit for that work? Once I found out about it, it quickly became a no-brainer.”