Sophia Tosi was a distance runner until she decided to focus on sprinting through her education.

As a high school senior, four years into the College Credit Plus (CCP) program, she discontinued extracurriculars to finish her associate degree in business management at COTC. Her dedication paid off, and now she’s getting paid. The 18-year-old earned a COTC degree — plus six certificates — this spring and landed a job before graduating high school.

“It’s funny. I don’t even really enjoy school that much,” the Newark native said. “The motivation was just investing in my future.”

It’s an investment that cost her nothing. CCP courses are available to high school students for free through the state, meaning she acquired a college degree without accruing any debt.

Tosi took almost all her classes online, a very flexible feature of the program, but she was still a key figure in the campus community. She won the esteemed Kelly Saffle Leadership Award. She became the chapter president of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She worked in COTC’s Gateway Enrollment Center. She even studied abroad in the United Kingdom.

All things considered, it was “a pretty straightforward college experience, and it’s so crazy you can have that opportunity as a high school student,” she said. “It’s really helped propel me where I’m going.”

Now that Tosi’s off the starting block, she’s striding easily into the workforce. The talented teenager has turned into a teller at a local credit union, where she has immediately seen the impact of her education.

“My coworkers talk about stuff I already know,” she said, referring to what she learned in her coursework. “At COTC, all the classes were very tailored, so now I can really apply my knowledge right away.”

Tosi’s journey was swift and intense, truly a sprint through the process. But with a degree in hand and the wind at her back, she’s positioned to stay ahead of the pack.