{"id":147737,"date":"2023-05-08T14:16:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T20:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=147737"},"modified":"2023-05-19T10:24:32","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T16:24:32","slug":"commencement-feature-annika-mote-is-the-youngest-ever-graduate-at-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=147737","title":{"rendered":"Commencement Feature: Annika Mote is the youngest-ever graduate at 17"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Annika Mote<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In many ways, Annika Mote was your typical 12-year-old girl. She enjoyed ice skating, hated math and had a full set of braces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was also, however, enrolled in her first semester of college \u2013 with her mom dropping her off for classes every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just no way around it,\u201d she laughed. \u201cI was 12. I looked awkward. I was awkward. I didn\u2019t know how to talk to people. I took three classes my first semester and it was harder then, because everyone knew I was young. Now, in my last semester, it\u2019s easier because given the context people assume I\u2019m older.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annika started her higher education journey at Pikes Peak State College (PPSC) studying biochemistry. After completing that program (and, in the same year, her high school education), she enrolled at UCCS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t move out of state, obviously, and I didn\u2019t want to go to a big school because I was scared,\u201d she explained about the decision to start out at PPSC. \u201cIt was going to be a huge transition no matter what.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After PPSC, UCCS was the natural next move.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bigger campus with more resources, but it\u2019s not out of state and it\u2019s not overwhelmingly big,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good middle ground for what I needed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite having grown up with an intense dislike of math, she chose to major in Applied Mathematics at the encouragement of an instructor.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hated math most of my life \u2013 really, genuinely hated it,\u201d Annika said, describing the typical scene of a kid crying at a kitchen table struggling with their homework. \u201cI took a Calculus class and I felt like a fish out of water. I got a 56% on my first exam and was like great, this is when I drop out of college.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although she may have had a rough start, Annika\u2019s math instructor saw her potential and convinced her to change her major, and Annika ended the semester with an A in the class.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the first time, math clicked and made sense,\u201d she said. \u201cI was excited to do my homework because I understood what was going on. It felt more like a fun challenge.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after she had made up her mind to pursue math, Annika put off officially changing her major for a while.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt silly, after hating math my entire life, to be like, \u2018actually…,\u2019\u201d she laughed. \u201cMy parents were so deeply confused, but very supportive.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeeply confused, but supportive\u201d might be the best way to describe her parents’ attitude for most of Annika\u2019s childhood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annika\u2019s mother always thought she was, in Annika\u2019s words, \u201cweird.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the first couple years of my life, I think my parents actually thought I was dumb,\u201d she laughed. \u201cI had no natural instincts. Multiple times in the first years of my life, I had two black eyes because I would fall without protecting my face.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy language skills did develop pretty early,\u201d she admitted. \u201cI was speaking full sentences before I was one and asked to start learning to read around age two. I was never developmentally normal in anything \u2013 I was either ahead or behind.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, Annika\u2019s pediatrician put things together and told her parents she was gifted.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she was in elementary school, Annika and her parents made the choice to homeschool. Although she was only in fifth grade at the time, she took the standardized tests for homeschooling and scored at a ninth-grade level.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe started off with the ninth-grade material, and they thought it might take me longer to complete the curriculum, but I was self-paced and it just kind of went from there,\u201d Annika said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, after completing high school so quickly, Annika described college as a rude awakening.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I got to college, I didn\u2019t know how to study \u2013 I had never had to,\u201d she said. \u201cFor the first time in my life, I suddenly wasn\u2019t getting As in everything.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annika taught herself how to study, something she considers one of her greatest academic accomplishments, along with the way she turned her attitude toward math around.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course, I still procrastinate like every other college student,\u201d she laughed. \u201cBut my younger self would be most proud of my grades in math. It was a totally foreign concept to me at that time, that I could be good at math. And not only good, but even enjoy it.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her college career, Annika pointed to the support of UCCS faculty and her mentors as things that helped her make it through. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of really good professors that pushed me when I needed it,\u201d she said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the opportunity, Annika would do it all again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf all the choices I had, going to college was the one that had the best shot of turning me into a well-adjusted adult,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Annika Mote stands in front of the UCCS library clock tower.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After graduation, Annika will be taking a gap year \u2013 something most 18-year-olds are doing after high school, not college. Then, she has her sights set on a graduate degree, something she plans on pursuing out of state.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019ll also be getting her driver\u2019s license, which she put off this long simply because it didn\u2019t make sense to her to pay for one semester of parking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after all of the literal lessons learned during her five-year college career, Annika\u2019s main insight still came from within. She\u2019s learned to embrace her age as an asset, rather than something she should try to hide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI used to try really hard to pretend to be an adult, to pretend to relate to things I couldn\u2019t, and that never did me any favors,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a feminine teenage girl, which you don\u2019t see a lot in the field of mathematics. People tend to expect a lot less of me, then are surprised when they learn I do know what I\u2019m talking about. But I\u2019ve learned that I can be a bubbly 17-year-old girl and still do what I need to do.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s her life advice for anyone \u2013 be who you are.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing judged used to feel like the end of the world, the worst thing that could possibly happen, but it\u2019s not that big a deal,\u201d she said. \u201cSome people aren\u2019t going to like you no matter what, and that\u2019s fine \u2013 at least you can always walk away knowing exactly who you are.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In many ways, Annika Mote was your typical 12-year-old girl. She enjoyed ice skating, hated math and had a full set of braces.\u00a0She was also, however, enrolled in her first semester of college. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":147902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[86,42,132,332,60],"class_list":["post-147737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","tag-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences","tag-commencement","tag-department-of-mathematics","tag-more-news","tag-student-success"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Annika-Mote-Communique-Featured-Image.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-CqR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147737"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148289,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147737\/revisions\/148289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/147902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}