Leslie Flores walked out of her cultural anthropology class last Thursday wearing a bright floral dress and a cardigan. Standing at a tall 6’1,” it’s hard to believe that the Wittenberg sophomore is only in the twelfth grade, sporting her dressy attire to celebrate both the first day and first volleyball match of the year at Southeastern High School, where she plays the positions middle hitter, setter and defensive specialist.
One of the students dually enrolled in classes at Witt, Flores starts her weekdays in high school classes like any other seventeen-year-old. In the late morning and early afternoon though, she drives to Wittenberg to complete her college course. After finishing her anthropology class during the fall semester, Flores plans to take English 180 in the spring.
“I definitely felt out place the first couple of classes, but now I feel more comfortable, talk to people and raise my hand in class. Nobody treats me any different,” Flores said.
Flores described the process of enrolling at Witt as simple, with the help of her guidance counselor and English teacher.
“I had to send over my transcript from past college credits I’ve taken, and I had to apply and see if I was eligible and if my grades were good enough,” Flores said.
Saying that she decided to take classes at Witt to “challenge herself more,” Flores aspires to major in chemistry during college and eventually become a chemical engineer.
“I’m taking the classes to get out of high school and to get general education credits out of the way that I don’t want to pay for later in college,” Flores said. “At my school, it’s not very popular to take classes at Wittenberg. Most kids go to Clark State if they want to get ahead.”
Despite wanting to leave high school, Flores remains fully immersed in student life at Southeastern. In addition to volleyball, Flores plays as a small forward on the basketball team, center-fielder on the softball team and is involved with the school’s student council.
On whether Flores plans to attend Wittenberg full-time next year, she’s “thinking about it.” She’s also interested in playing volleyball in college.
“I mean, right now I’m looking at Wittenberg. I don’t know where I’m going yet, but Wittenberg is an option. I like my classes here, and I know Wittenberg has a great volleyball team.”
