When Jennifer Bass was in middle school, she became ill with a heart condition that caused her to miss several weeks of school. While her illness set the Covington teen back a bit in school, it didn’t stop her drive to succeed academically.

Bass’s condition made it difficult, but she began making up lost academic time in high school. By her junior year, she had a 3.0 GPA and was accepted into Georgia Perimeter’s Move On When Ready program on the college’s Newton Campus.

The program allows students like Bass to take college courses while also getting credit for high school courses. Students must have at least a 3.0 high school GPA and a 970 cumulative SAT or 20 ACT score. Bass is one of more than 100 MOWR students at Georgia Perimeter, says Gina Gavin, who oversees all of GPC’s early college programs.

But Bass went above and beyond in the program, says Gavin.

An Honors student, Bass graduates today with an associate degree in journalism, joining more than 2,050 of her GPC classmates at the Georgia World Congress Center. Later this month, she will graduate from Eastside High School, ranked No. 7 in the class of 2015.

“Move on When Ready [is a state program] for public high school students who have chosen to leave high school totally—they have no classes at high school,” says Gavin. “These students are attending Georgia Perimeter to complete their high school diploma. A MOWR student doesn’t have to complete their associate degree—it’s just an option. The fact that Jennifer has completed her associate degree while completing her high school diploma says she went above and beyond and took more courses.”

Bass admits she didn’t really have a plan when she began her college career at age 15. An avid writer, she took journalism courses because she enjoyed writing. But a biology course this past semester has changed her career plans, she says. “I didn’t know I liked biology.”

She has enjoyed attending college and the freedom it allows. But she notes that she has had to keep up with her high school activities as well. “When you’re in this program, it is the student’s responsibility to find out what’s going on in high school—the only reason I knew when our prom was, was because of my friends,” she says.

Bass has been accepted to Georgia College in Milledgeville, where she plans to major in biology. Her MOWR credits allow her to enter as a junior in college.