As Arizona State University prepares to celebrate its spring graduates, many students graduating this May didn’t follow a traditional path to get there — they began by taking college courses first, demonstrating their readiness through performance rather than relying on past academic records, through ASU’s Earned Admission pathway.

Lenin Juarez was in the first group of Phoenix high school students to receive personalized early-acceptance letters to ASU in fall 2021, as part of an initiative to assist students who might not realize that they’re qualified for college. Now, he’s graduating with degrees in political science and justice studies, and a 4.0 GPA.