Seventeen-year-old Keirston Bloomfield will technically graduate from college before she graduates from high school.
Having taken prerequisites for the WNMU nursing program since her freshman year of high school, Keirston has earned enough credits for an associate degree, which also happens to be enough credits to graduate from high school — one year early.
When she was younger, Keirston thought she wanted to be a vet and pursued some opportunities to explore that field more. “I didn’t like it much so I thought maybe instead of animals, I could help people,” she said.
She started taking dual enrollment classes at Western New Mexico University and will walk in this week’s commencement ceremony, earning an associate degree in liberal arts. (Her Silver High School graduation isn’t until May 20.)
But this won’t be the end of Keirston’s educational journey. “I’m planning on finishing the rest of my prerequisites for the WNMU nursing program and applying next spring,” she said.
Her goal is to be a trauma nurse, understanding that she’s always been fine with seeing blood and having assisted the veterinarian whose clinic she works in with surgeries.
Keirston said being a dual enrolled student is “definitely not easy” but was a worthwhile experience. “I’ve learned how to keep up on work and do things in a timely manner and stay organized. Taking college classes made my high school classes much easier. This semester I was taking 12 classes total.”
That’s on top of her work at the vet clinic and her daily life with four little brothers.
Keirston, like all of the graduates turning their tassels this week, earned the privilege.
This is a WNMU student profile, Stampede: Faces, Stories, Lives. Please be in touch with the names of other interesting Mustangs, and we’ll consider sharing their stories here.