9News TV Story: This 18-year-old has an education beyond his years

Posted April 26, 2018

Author: Mike Grady, 9 News

Published: 04/26/18

Alex Jones quietly unzips his backpack, pulls out a laptop, and launches a video game.

Not just any video game. His video game.

“I just call it the 2D/3D game,” he explains. “It’s more of just a proof of concept right now.”

Software engineering is what this high school senior calls a leisure activity.

Alex is always working hard.

“Right now I’m a senior at Denver Online High School, and college right now,” he says.

He’s part of the Concurrent Enrollment Program.

“It’s a program where high school kids can take college classes,” explains Alex’s high school counselor, Casey Burton.

“Right now we’ve got about sixty of our 270 kids enrolled,” says Casey.

It’s a program Denver Public Schools is pushing more and more. Districts get money from the state that they can put towards tuition for their students that choose to earn college credit.

Alex has used the program to its maximum potential.

“This kid has known what he wants to do,” says Casey, “since seventh grade when he started taking college classes.”

Two high schools, an associate’s degree, and four colleges later, Alex is set to earn both his high school diploma and bachelor’s degree next month.

“It’s kind of ironic because I’m pretty bad at multi-tasking,” observes Alex.

Alex is happy to put the 21-hour school days behind him, but his ambition isn’t close to letting up. He plans to put his computer science degree to work in the Airforce cyber field. At the rate he’s going he’ll make Second Lieutenant in about a year.

“It’s been really rewarding doing all of this,” says Alex. “I’m not going to stop now.”