HUMBOLDT — For a few fleeting hours Saturday, Humboldt’s Carsyn Haviland and Maddox Johnson will hold the distinction of being community college graduates before they’ve graduated from high school.
Sure, it’s simply because of a scheduling quirk.
The Allen Community College commencement is set for 10 a.m. Saturday.
Humboldt High School’s senior commencement, meanwhile, isn’t until that afternoon at 5.
Nevertheless, doubling up on diplomas warrants special acclaim, not just because they’ve accrued the necessary credits at both the high school and collegiate levels simultaneously, but because they’ve done it so well.
Johnson is graduating from both with a 4.0 grade-point average. Haviland, meanwhile, sported all A’s at Allen, while compiling a 3.85 GPA at HHS.
But you can forgive them if they don’t do much celebrating — at least for a while.
“It’ll be a long day already,” Johnson laughed.
THE INSPIRATION for the double graduation came from a pair of familiar faces.
In 2018, Humboldt’s Rylan Wilhite and Noah Johnson also graduated simultaneously from Allen and Humoldt. Noah is Maddox’s older brother (and Haviland’s cousin); Wilhite is cousin to both as well.
“Ever since I saw them do it, I knew it was possible,” Haviland said.
It also helped that Haviland’s mother, Bobbie Haviland, is registrar at Allen’s Iola campus, and was there to remind her of what courses she needed to complete.
Johnson, meanwhile, hadn’t given the double graduation much thought.
For him, it was more a matter of just loading up his class schedule to the brim, enrolling in the toughest courses he could.
“I didn’t even know I was going to graduate (from Allen) until a couple months ago,” Johnson said, when he received a call from Haviland’s mother.
“I figured it would be close, but I didn’t know for sure until then,” he said. “I just figured, whatever happened would happen.”
