Goldsboro Girl, 13, Skips High School And Heads To College

Christian Peele is about to take a big step this summer, all the way fromGreenwoodMiddle School in Goldsboro to college. She will barely be able to drivewhen she graduates.

"My career goal is to be a neo-natal physical therapist. Take care ofbabies," she says. "It is of the utmost importance to work hard and tryyour best because that's how you get where you want to be.That's how you succeed."

Peele's parents never finished college but she says she is succeedingbecause of a work ethic they have preached all her life.

"I couldn't just get by with anything, and I think a lot of it comes fromthem, from what they teach me, also from my environment, my peers,[and] mychurch," she says.

"I think one of the most important reasons that we always have instilledin her high standards is because of what came up in as the results of usright now, that we could have been better," says her mother, Mary IsolenePeele.

From the time Peele was conceived, her parents read to her everyday.

"My wife would read the Bible to her everyday all day until the day thatshe was born, and then it just continued to grow," says Christian's father, Dennis Peele.

"I'm no brainiac, I'm no Albert Einstein. I just work hard, try hard, dowhat I'm supposed to do. Do my work, and be the best that I can be and itall comes, it all comes naturally for me," she says.

Peele will attend Mary Baldwin College in Stanton, Virginia. The school's "Program for the ExceptionallyGifted" is open only to girls ages 13 through 17.