How two WHS students got their associate’s degrees — before graduating

WASHINGTON — Washington High School graduates Maya Murphy and Halle Cuddeback walked the stage last month at the Class of 2025’s commencement ceremony.

Like their peers, the two moved their tassels to the left side of their caps after receiving diplomas, and shook the hands of school district administrators as they received well-earned congratulations. Unlike the rest of the graduating class however, both already had another academic accomplishment already under their belt: an Associate of Arts degree.

Usually earned after two years of college-level studies, both Cuddeback and Murphy got their degrees by mixing Kirkwood Regional Center coursework with their high school classes.

“I didn’t decide I wanted to get my AA until probably the end of sophomore year, when I realized that was achievable for me,” Murphy said. “Then I just took as many classes as I needed for each semester … it saves money on college, a lot of money, and I felt like a lot of high school classes weren’t challenging me. Also, I didn’t see the point of taking a high school class that I could take at Kirkwood and get college credit for.”

Cuddeback said she also found many of her high school classes insufficiently challenging, a factor that drove her to Kirkwood courses covering similar material. That’s not to say the new workload wasn’t daunting, at times.

“It was pretty manageable,” she said. “There were some times when I would have like, a softball tournament every weekend, and I’d be trying to finish an assignment that was due at midnight, at 11-o'clock on the way home from Kansas City.”

Grads say degree will help through college

Now out of high school, Cuddeback and Murphy both plan to attend universities this fall to study event management and pre-med biology, respectively.

The alumnae expect their associate’s degrees to shave off time in college, putting them on the fast track toward certifications and even grad school with a handful of gen-ed credits and required courses already knocked out. That, in turn, means a quicker path to more interesting coursework, and a considerably lower cost to complete bachelor’s degrees.

While the monetary benefits are appealing, both said that wasn’t the driving factor behind their pursuit of an undergraduate degree before finishing high school.

For Murphy, it was a matter of personal achievement.

“I’m always looking to be the best in everything I do,” she said. “That’s obviously not something that’s always going to happen, but this was something I could do, and I really pushed to get it done … there’s something in the back of my head telling me, ‘I’ve got to get this done.’”

Cuddeback, meanwhile, said she was motivated by a sense of friendly competition with her older siblings.

“One of my sisters was salutatorian, one of my sisters was valedictorian,” she said. “It’s not aggressive, but we’re all like, ‘I’m smarter than you.’ And we’re close enough that we’re always joking when we say that … but I want to be able to get to my full potential.”

Undergrad accomplishment rare, under new high school requirements

Washington CSD changed its high school graduation requirements starting last academic year.

The new rules established that Kirkwood courses couldn’t replace most core classes, like science and math, required to graduate. In an email this week, WHS Principal Ed Rathjen said classes at the regional center could still provide credits toward electives and a handful of required courses, including a personal finance class and English 12.

District officials at the time said the change would help keep academic role models in the building and ensure taxpayer dollars were used efficiently, adding that the new policy was already a norm at the high school even though it wasn’t previously on the books.

Murphy and Cuddeback — seniors when the new policy took effect — were grandfathered into the old rules, making it possible to finish the degrees they started pursuing as sophomores. Murphy said almost all of her high school graduation requirements were met by the time she started her senior year, while Cuddeback needed a waiver from a school administrator allowing her to replace two senior-level courses with Kirkwood credits.

Both said they were disappointed to see the change in requirements for their younger peers, however, expecting it to prevent them from accomplishing the same goals during high school.

“Personally, I feel like taking Kirkwood classes has helped me so much,” Cuddeback said. “I had to get special permission from the principal this year to let me take two Kirkwood classes to cancel out two of my high school ones … but I don’t think they’re allowing anybody to do that anymore.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com