DCHS Senior to Receive College Degree Through Dual Enrollment

Leah Burchfield, a senior at DCHS, is on track to earn a college degree less than two weeks before she gets her high school diploma.
On Saturday, May 9th, Burchfield will receive an Associates Degree at Motlow State Community College. Her graduation from DCHS will be thirteen days later on Friday, May 22. Burchfield’s goal is to further her college education as she works toward becoming a General Physician.
Burchfield is not the first student at DCHS to receive a college degree while still in high school, but she is the first to have completed college courses in just two years.
Through a program called dual enrollment, high school students may take one or more college courses for which they may receive both high school and college credits. The college courses are available online. “It’s an opportunity for students to get high school and college credit. We run through Motlow and Vol State Community Colleges. We have agreements with them. It’s a good way for students to get a jump on their college career. There are a number of courses they can take. We started off many years ago with just two English courses (for college) and now it has ballooned to where students are able to take a variety of courses for college,” DCHS Principal Patrick Cripps told WJLE Monday.
“My junior year I got really interested in taking dual enrollment because I wanted to get ahead. The end of the first semester of my senior year, Ms. Jamie (Wright) informed me that I already had 48 credit hours and I was really close to having 60. So I scheduled everything out to where I could go ahead and have my associates degree. It was kind of a shock to think I had done it in two years and last year it was done in four years,” said Burchfield in an interview with WJLE Monday.
“The first semester of my junior year I took three classes and each one was for three hours. The next semester I took four classes and over the summer I took three classes. The first semester of my senior year I took five and this semester I have six classes,” said Burchfield.
“I wanted to get my basics out of the way because with wanting to be in pre-med I knew I had to look forward to eight years of college so I took my English, History, and some Biology and Chemistry and I did all my humanities like art and music,” she said.
“I want to continue on and go to MTSU to finish up my pre-med. I haven’t picked a medical school yet but I’m hoping for Vanderbilt or Meharry Medical. I want to be a general physician,” Burchfield told WJLE.
Burchfield, a resident of Alexandria, is the daughter of William Burchfield and Glenda Eaton.