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Paige Davis has exceeded expectations her entire life. From an early age, educators and Davis’ family knew she was gifted in school.

She skipped kindergarten and moved up to the first grade. With more room to grow, Davis and her family decided to send her to Woodrow Wilson Early College to start earning college credit in hopes of graduating with an associate’s degree at 16 years old.

At 13 years old, Davis completed her freshman year and is looking forward to the next.

“It was pretty much a breeze,” she said. “It was a little harder than I expected. I learned that certain things go certain ways. I made mistakes this year that I know not to make next year. I tried to wait until the last minute to do some assignments. Now I know to do them beforehand.”

Early College Principal LaSonya Baptiste said she and the rest of the school are proud of Davis.

“It just makes us feel proud of her and her program itself to know that she has the capacity to come in and take charge,” Baptiste said. “She carries a lot of responsibilities and carries them quite well.”

Even after skipping a grade, Davis didn’t really feel like she was more advanced until she got to fifth grade.

“The work got a little harder and I felt like I adapted better,” she said.

Davis’ her favorite subjects are Geometry and English.

“In Geometry I like that you have to do certain shapes for certain formulas,” she said. “I like to write papers in my English class.”

Biology is currently Davis’ least favorite subject. She also said Reading has been her most difficult class that she is happy she took.

“I don’t really find reading fun, but I still do it,” she said. “I like how our teacher teaches us. She teaches to a point we understand it. If we don’t understand it, she finds a way to make us understand.”

Davis enjoyed the short story There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury.

While she doesn’t yet know in which field she wants her associates degree, Davis already knows which college she wants to attend.

“I want to go to Southern University,” she said. “I want to go to an HBCU. I like their band, too. I also heard they have good programs over there. I don’t know what I want to major in yet. I know later in life, I want to get my real estate license. I feel like that is more of a side thing. I like to teach but I don’t know if I want to do them at the same time.”

Davis said her passion for teaching comes from her mom, who is a teacher at Fehl-Price Classical Academy in Beaumont.

“Sometimes, I would go to her classroom and watch her teach and adapt to that,” she said. “I would teach with her. She was teaching kindergarten and I was about 6.”