Haley Taylor Schlitz graduated from her Texas homeschooling high school program at just 13 years old. At age 19, she became the youngest black woman ever to graduate from law school. Schlitz joins Cheddar News to share how she did it all. 

Cheddar's News Wrap

Meet the Youngest Black Woman Ever to Graduate Law School

Welcome back to cheddar news wrap. Our next guest is on the fast track to success. She graduated from her texas home schooling high school program at just 13 years old and then at just 19, she became the youngest black woman ever to graduate law school. She joins me now. Hayley, Taylor Schlitz Haley. First of all, congrats graduation was just a couple of weeks ago. What were you feeling in that moment walking across the stage and you know, just making history? Um, just complete pride. I was sitting in the audience and as we were getting called up to walk towards the stage to have to be hooded and have our name called. I just felt a rush of pride being part of the class of 2022. Of course I'm happy elated, proud, humbled. I, there's, there's no words in my vocabulary to describe how I felt. All right, Let's go back a bit. This all started when you were pulled out of the fifth grade. Tell us your story. What happened? How did you achieve all this? Absolutely. So, um, it was multifaceted. There was some racism and microaggressions that I faced in my schools, but the straw on the camel's back was the fact that I cannot get into the gifted and talented program, I would, my grades went from straight A's to B's and that was enough for my mom to be like, you know, are you okay? And when she asked the teacher that he tested for the gifted and talented program, they said that I that she thought I would need to be held back. And so my mom decided to pull me out of home school me and that's when I excelled. So you were facing these microaggressions and this racial bias at the school you were attending. Yes. The public school I was at, yes, understood. Now when you decided to be home school, how is that transition and how is home school in general? For those who don't know what the experience is Like. I, uh, being 11, I saw it as being able to sleep in more, which was great. But um, retrospectively as somebody who's an adult now, uh, it was a fantastic transition for me, definitely something that I needed to stay engaged and interested in the material that I was learning just like a student who doesn't understand all the material, but the class has already moved on. Uh, they don't understand, they're frustrated and at the end of the day they're just memorizing things for an exam. A student who is bored and already understand that I was frustrated and just memorizing things to do as well as they need to to move on. And so that's the bare minimum and not what learning and, and what education is about. And so when I was, when I went pulled out of the public school system and was homeschooled, I was really able to have my personal interest and personal status and education catered to, which allowed me to excel is the next move. What do you want to do next? I'm going to go teach a young, which is a school in South Lake. I feel really called the teaching, I'm a sigma gamma rho and we were founded by teachers. I just really want to give back and create that learning environment that caters to students needs, wow, very exceptional. And you were the youngest student at your college, the youngest one to ever graduate from the law school. So how do the other students take it? How was the experience being the youngest person in the class? My, my experience was just like any other law students experience. I was not hazed or discriminated against. I participated in class discussions, class project, study groups, um social life with my peers at law school, with peers my same age. So it was a fantastic experience and they were impressed. But at the end of the day, we were all studying for the exams and stuff. So uh you know, they asked a couple of questions and then we got back to studying together. It was a very positive experience. Hayley Taylor Schlitz very, very impressive. Congratulations and I'm glad you showed all those people that you are smart enough and are capable of doing incredible things. Hayley taylor slits! Thanks again