News Outlets Across North America Highlight 14-Year-Old Anita Bennett’s Accomplishments

Recent Tri-C grad earned third associate degree at Spring Commencement

The end of the 2022-2023 school year has been memorable for Anita Bennett.

Bennett received an Associate of Science — her third degree — and graduated summa cum laude from Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) on May 19. She earned two previous associate degrees and two short-term certificates in August and December from Tri-C.

All at age 14 and before the end of her freshman year of high school.

Bennett was a College Credit Plus (CCP) student at Tri-C for three years. CCP allows students in grades 7-12 to take college courses while completing high school.

Her story quickly spread across the country after Bennett shared her accomplishments and aspirations with News 5 Cleveland.

“When you don't know about college, it can seem really hard and impossible at times,” she said. “But just knowing that if you put your mind to it, you can do it and that the sky's the limit, and you create your own boundaries.”

Within a few days, more stories about Anita appeared throughout the state on Cleveland 19 News and WLWT5 in Cincinnati. The broadcasts have since aired on other TV stations in North America, including WKRC (Cincinnati), WCPO (Cincinnati), WXIX (Cincinnati), WBNS (Columbus), WSYX (Columbus), WTTE (Columbus), WHIO (Dayton), WHIZ (Zanesville), KETV (Omaha, Nebraska), WEEK (Peoria, Illinois), WXII (Greensboro, North Carolina), WSAZ (Charleston, West Virginia), KDRV (Medford, Oregon), WJXT (Jacksonville, Florida) and even as far as CTV News (Toronto and Vancouver).

May 25, 2023

MEDIA CONTACT: Anthony Moujaes, 216-987-3068 or anthony.moujaes@tri-c.edu