He Met Challenge With Plain Hard Work

Bryce Kohler’s high school years have been anything but typical.

While other students were making the transition from junior high to high school, Kohler was already looking forward to college.

“I wanted to get ahead,” Kohler says. “I enjoy things that challenge your mind.”

With his parents’ blessing, Kohler decided to take his high school classes through the Contract Based Education program so he could work at his own pace. And this spring when Kohler receives his high school diploma, he will already have finished the first year of an associate’s degree in mechanical engineering at Spokane Community College.

Contract Based Education, which is operated by the West Valley School District but serves students throughout the area, was originally designed to keep at-risk students from dropping out of school, or bring them back to earn a diploma. But principal Jeff Smith says there are more students each year like Kohler who couple Contract Based Education with the Running Start program so they can reach their career goals faster.

“We’ve got students here now who are gifted students too,” Smith says. “Sitting in the traditional high school setting, they get bored.”

Kohler is hard-working and goal-oriented beyond his 17 years, Smith says, the kind of teenager you’d be proud to call your own son.

“He’s got something that we can’t teach at school; a real honest work ethic.”

After attending junior high at Freeman, Kohler says the non-traditional schedule took a little adjustment.

“It’s a different feeling when they hand you an entire half year’s worth of work and you have five weeks to get it done,” he says. “You feel overwhelmed at first.”

Kohler doesn’t feel like he missed out on any of the traditional high school experience. He works at Planet Ice in the evenings and sees his friends often. They play a pick up game of ice hockey on Saturdays.

If anything, it’s made it easier for him to stay true to his religion as a Jehovah’s Witness and avoid the problems that derail other teens.

“Even though you might not be around all of the kids in a normal high school doesn’t mean you don’t have friends,” Kohler says. “And sometimes it’s better not to be around all the kids … because all of the pressure to take drugs or smoke or party or whatever.”

When Kohler is not studying, working or playing hockey, he is teaching himself how to play the guitar or rockhounding with his father.

Kohler will be barely 18 years old next year when he finishes an associate’s degree in mechanical engineering. He’s made the dean’s list at SCC and earned a scholarship to help with next year’s tuition. His ultimate goal is to design a car that doesn’t use gasoline.

Kohler says the path he took to get his high school diploma and start college early may not be for everyone.

“It takes a lot of self determination but I think anybody can do it if they want to.”