After spending her sophomore year of high school taking online classes from the comfort of her home, Chzarlize “Patchot” Corpuz was looking for a challenge.

“I wanted to go back to school, but I didn’t want to be stuck in my room again,” she says. “I spent all of 2021 in my room.”

Corpuz learned about the Young Scholars Academy (YSA) through a friend. The program offers students in the region a chance to take a full-time college course load on Northern Kentucky University’s campus during their final two years of high school.

While she wasn’t sure what major she wanted to pursue, YSA offered Corpuz an opportunity to figure out a major that she truly enjoyed. She switched from computer science to electronic media and broadcasting to English—a major she now loves.

“I wouldn't have had that time to explore or that time to realize what I actually wanted,” she says. “I would have lost all that money, and I would have lost a lot more time studying things that I didn't want to study.”

One of the other great benefits of joining YSA, she says, is the sense of community she found while on campus.

“YSA teaches you how to be part of a community,” she says. “You don’t have a class every single day, so it allows you to have pockets of time where you can have resting time during your school day. That resting time helps because you can talk to other people in your cohort and then bond with those people in your cohort. Or you can set up meetings for your advisors or your professors. You’re on campus, and you have all these different organizations that you can join. It helps you find your people and what you’re passionate about outside of getting your education.”

Corpuz graduated from Simon Kenton High School in 2023 with 60 college credits under her belt.

When she returned to NKU's campus that fall, it was an easy change because she previously made connections and was already comfortable.

“I think [YSA] helped me get out of the rhythm that I would have with my high school teachers,” she says. “I was really nervous about professors, their syllabi and their expectations. It helped me get used to having more professional relationships with the people who are educating me rather than having a disconnect. And since I was able to connect more with them at an earlier age and get used to that rhythm, I could actually ask questions that could help me with the material.”

Corpuz built great relationships with professors in the Department of English and decided to become an English major in the literary and cultural studies track.

But what made her commit to NKU was YSA Director Dan Ginn.

“I really appreciated him. He's very understanding and always very calm,” she says. “He definitely showed me how to be a lot more organized with my school schedule and then also got me thinking about tuition, future courses and the eventual goal of graduating.”

During her time at NKU, Corpuz has worked in the university's bookstore and W. Frank Steely Library as an archive fellow. She’s also created two student organizations: Shadow Blossom Collective and Norse Students for Justice in Palestine.

She’s enjoyed her time at NKU so much that she plans to join the university’s Master of Public History program after she graduates in spring 2026.

Her advice for students just joining YSA? Talk to your professors.

“I think a lot of people can be very overwhelmed by the amount of assignments and workload, but talk to your professors,” she says. “They have office hours. They want to talk to you. They want to help you. They don’t want to just give you an assignment and never interact with you. I think they can help you practice communicating what you need and communicating well.”