While Chavez High School is home to many great accomplishments by its students: from our award-winning Skills-USA team, our many hard-working sports teams, and now an unprecedented accomplishment by one of our very own Chavez’s seniors. A student who has completed not just one, but multiple college degrees while still enrolled in Chavez. She is the first student at Chavez to receive a college degree while still enrolled in high school; not just a single college degree though, a feet in and of its self, but two AA degrees completed and a third in progress.

 Tiffany Huynh is a Senior this year at Chavez High School, but her schedule is anything but empty. She is currently enrolled in eight delta college courses on top of her Chavez classes, all of which are honors. And if that wasn’t already a full plate, Tiffany works four days a week Thursday-Sunday at Champ Sports here in Stockton, CA. One can say for certain that Tiffany is anything but idle.

 After Tiffany explained to me her schedule; which if you can believe it, is less busy this year than last as she is no longer playing for the Chavez golf team or volunteering for Key Club, this reporter was baffled. However, as of print, Tiffany has agreed to continue volunteering with the club as she found a way to cut work hours to continue helping the Key Club. 

I sat down with the college graduate here at CCHS and I began seeing into her nonstop moving life. “ Where do you find the time?” Tiffany grins at my first question and responds with, “I pull a lot of all-nighters,” as she finishes with a laugh. 

(For the record readers, I had attempted to interview Tiffany earlier in the week, but she begged off and asked to reschedule as she hadn’t slept the night before and felt she would give a better interview if we did it another time. )

Tiffany currently has an AA in Studies in Art, Humanities, and Social Science, an AA in Health Science, and her third AA which is in Mathematics will be completed this summer. “What she has has accomplished is simply amazing. She has worked so hard for everything.” Athena Greenwood shared about Tiffany’s accomplishments. 

One may think that having accomplished the admittedly incredible feat Tiffany must have been doing Delta courses since freshman year. However, this is not the case. Tiffany began her Delta College career only in her junior year. In fact, she had to receive special permission that summer to take the large course load that she had requested; a whopping 14 credits, making her a full time college student. 

However, Tiffany’s path to her accomplishments was not without some setbacks. One of the most significant being the delta placement test. Before last year any student attending delta courses was required to take the delta placement test to see what classes they were allowed to take. This is similar to state testing in which there is no pass or fails necessarily, but there are limitations on what you can take depending on your scores. This would normally only be a small irritation unless you -as approximately 20% of students do- have test anxiety.

In short, test anxiety is a psychological condition in which people experience distress and anxiety during testing situations. Luckily Tiffany knew a teacher on campus that was well versed in Test anxiety. That teacher, Mr. Gruno, took Tiffany under his wing and mentored her into feeling comfortable with tests. “I simply printed articles out from scientific journals and tips on how to deal with the anxiety of tests. I knew Tiffany just needed a little nudge over the obstacle in front of her and then she would succeed beyond what we could hope.” Mr. Gruno explains.

Tiffany laughs nervously when I ask about the delta placement test. Responding with her scores; a two in reading and writing composition and a four in math. Those scores would not initially allow her to take Delta courses other than remedial ones being offered. 

Tiffany currently plans to get her RN degree after graduation, but is open to the idea of changing that in the future. Tiffany says that her family: Her mother, father, older brother, and older sister support her in her ambitious academic goals.