Hyde Park Student Graduates Both High School and College

By Robin Gee

Hyde Park student Caden Elrod has quite a jump start on his future. In May he graduated from both high school and college in the same year. He earned his high school diploma from Walnut Hills High School while also earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics (statistics/actuarial science) with a minor in computer science from the University of Cincinnati.

Elrod was among the youngest students to be accepted into the city wide program called the College Credit Plus (CCP) program. Students in grades six to 12 can apply for the program. Qualifying students are determined through an application process that includes a review of their grades and grade point average, results of a standardized test and other criteria laid out by Ohio law.

Once accepted, students can take college level classes at the University of Cincinnati while also attending junior high and senior high school. 

“I didn’t start with the intention of graduating, I just started, but after a few years, I thought, wow, I can actually graduate with a full bachelors if I take all these classes,” Elrod said.

He started his academic journey at Kilgour School, transferring to Hyde Park Elementary for third to sixth grades. At Hyde Park he was took classes through the Cincinnati Gifted Academy (which ended with the creation of Spencer Center in 2017). 

At the end of sixth grade, he said, he applied and was accepted into CCP just before his start at Walnut Hills for seventh grade.

How did he do it?

Elrod organized his schedule to allow him to fit in the college classes, starting light and progressing his workload as he completed his high school credits.

“In the fall and spring normal school semesters, I took one class and then, during the summer, I took two or three classes up until my sophomore year. Then I only had two more classes left to take at Walnut and so I took three or four UC classes. Then in junior and senior year, this year, I took a full load of UC classes.”

Like all of his classmates, Covid was a challenge, forcing him to take all his classes that year from both entities online. 

While it is obvious that Elrod is smart, focused and studied hard, he said he still had some time for fun, playing sports throughout his school years. He has played a sport every semester at Walnut Hills, he said. He’s done cross-country, tennis and golf, and joined the Ski Club. This year, he said, it was Ultimate Frisbee because tennis didn’t fit his schedule.

He also found time outside of classes to contribute to the community. Elrod was featured in Hyde Park Living about 10 years ago when he spearheaded an effort to get recycling cans in Hyde Park and Mount Lookout squares, and raised funds to maintain their use. 

Sharing some thoughts on the journey

Attending classes with people much older than himself was a bit intimidating at first, he said.

“But people generally treated me pretty well, and as I’ve gotten older, probably the past two years, people haven’t been as keen or aware that I was a lot younger than them.”

When asked what he would tell others interested in the program, he advised to start small and build from there. 

“Start off with the gen eds, the 1000 level courses. Compared to the AP [Advanced Placement] classes, I would say it’s usually a lot easier. As long as you do the work and you actually try and learn, you’ll be able to finish the classes pretty handily if you are already doing well in school.”  

Looking back, Elrod said it was a great experience overall.

“It was really nice, though, because I was able to be more challenged in school, whereas before that, school was very easy for me. If you’re not challenged, if you ever have to actually work your brain, you’re not going to learn how to work hard. I’ve noticed that with a lot of people, gifted kids, they just never have to work hard so when they get to the real world, it is very difficult.”

What’s next?

Elrod already has a job lined up. At a UC career fair he spoke with a recruiter for the Department of the Navy within the Department of Defense. He said they offered him a job doing research focused on autonomous vehicles. 

At this point, he said, he will take time before deciding on a career path.

“Maybe law, maybe even more AI, maybe something else…I’ll see where I end up, where it all goes. I’m still pretty young, and I don’t have it all figured out yet,” he said. 

Whatever the future holds, he is well on his way to a bright future.