Albion senior graduates from college before high school

Robert June

ALBION – Robert June has completed a rare feat at age 17. He has earned a college degree and he is still a senior in high school. He will graduate from Albion next month.

June on May 18 walked the commencement stage at Genesee Community College for his associate’s degree. He actually completed the needed coursework for the GCC degree a year sooner when he was a junior in high school.

“I’ll be completely honest with you, I just love learning and education in general,” June said.

He plans to study finance at the University of Denver. But he will first take a year off from college to work and save up money.

June took classes at GCC during the summers after his freshman and sophomore years in high school. He took other classes during the school that counted for college credit at both the high school and at the GCC campus center in Albion.

He praised his Albion math teacher, Shelly Daggs, for pushing him in the classroom.

“Mrs. Daggs is one of the best teachers ever,” he said.

June said he was motivated to complete as many courses as possible while in high school partly because of the low cost of the college credit. He estimates his associate’s degree only cost about $2,000 for textbooks and gas.

He juggled the coursework while playing center for the Albion football team, competing in track, and being active with the school’s Chess Club and Masterminds team.

June’s achievement, earning a college degree before graduating from high school, is unusual, but not unprecedented. Machaon Bonafede also earned a GCC degree before he graduated from Albion about 15 years ago.

“He is a very tenacious young man with his eyes on the prize,” Donna Rae Sutherland, GCC’s associate director of marketing communications, said about June. “He has saved a ton of money.”