- End of 4th Marking Period 
Francesca Caal Skonos, left, speaks up in her anthropology class at Jackson Community College in Summit Township. The teenager is a student at the da Vinci Institute, and at 14, she also is the youngest student at JCC. Francesca Caal Skonos’ professor at Jackson Community College couldn’t believe it when she found out the girl who sits in the back row and regularly participates in classroom discussions is only 14.
“I was shocked,” said Larissa Nemoianu, who teaches Francesca’s cultural anthropology class. “She’s very mature. She’s always asking questions. She’s not inhibited.”
Francesca, a sophomore at da Vinci High School, is the youngest student taking a class on JCC’s main campus, according to college records. She is among 273 high school students who are dual-enrolled at the college this semester.
“I’m not, like, a super-genius,” the soft-spoken teen said. “I’m just really ambitious.”
Every Tuesday and Thursday, Francesca walks from da Vinci High School, which is on the JCC campus, to her anthropology class in McDivitt Hall.
A student who sits next to her is the only one who knows she’s only 14, Francesca said, although she assumes most of her classmates can tell that she’s younger than them.
Francesca, a Summit Township resident, said she is a 4.0-student at da Vinci.
“I think I have like an 80-something (percent)” in the JCC course, she said.
Francesca Caal Skonos, center, listens to her professor lecture during her anthropology class at Jackson Community College in Summit Township. She works hard in the anthropology class, taking lots of notes and getting to class 15 minutes early so she can prepare for the day’s work.
“I wanted to do a college class because I wanted to get ahead,” Francesca said.
She picked anthropology because she has traveled a lot and thought it would be interesting to learn about human culture. Francesca’s dad, Mariano Caal, is from Guatemala. She’s visited that country and Spain, and also plans to go to Greece.
She plans to take more college classes next semester.
Francesca — whose older brother Marco also attends da Vinci — wants to study medicine at the University of Michigan and become a family practice physician.
Her mother, Stephanie Skonos, who is a registered dietitian, said Francesca pushes herself.
“She did this on her own,” Skonos said of Francesca attending JCC. “She enrolled. She took the class.”
Taking a college class was intimidating at first, Francesca said. She described her first day as “nerve-wracking.”
“I sat in the back and I didn’t really talk to anybody. But I realized that you’ve kind of got to talk in the class,” she said.
Francesca got marked down for not participating in discussions. Ever since, she has made sure to raise her hand.
Sandy Maxson, da Vinci superintendent and high school principal, said the school has many students enroll at JCC, but Francesca has been the youngest. Usually students don’t dual-enroll until they’re 17 or 18, she said.
“She’s really interested in learning,” Maxson said of Francesca. “When we see a student in class who’s doing well, we go to them because we want them to spread their wings a little.”
