In middle school, she had learned about Great Path Academy, a school located on the Manchester Community College campus. Dunn said she learned about students graduating from high school with their associate’s degrees and decided that was something she wanted to pursue.

Dunn has been a straight-A student through high school and recently found out that she is in the top 10% of her college. She has also been invited to join the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She could not believe that the society asked her to join.

Jax Dunn is a student Great Path Academy and Manchester Community College.

“It was really weird to find out,” Dunn said. “I am 17, and I take two classes here. Did you all get your numbers right?”

Dunn has been taking college-level classes since her sophomore year. She has taken American Sign Language, sociology and various humanities and writing courses. However, her favorite class is English 101. In the class, Dunn had to write an essay on the book Blackbird. 

“Before Phi Theta Kappa, this was the highlight of my academic career,” she said. “This [teacher] made it very clear that she gave a 98 only twice in her teaching career, and I got a 98 on my essay which I was very proud of.”

In her spare time, Dunn enjoys playing cello or making art. During quarantine, she decided to paint a mural on a wall in her bedroom.

Her mother, Christine, is a cafeteria worker, and her father, Robert, works at the store Cabela’s.

After graduating from high school, Dunn plans to finish her associate’s degree before working towards her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. She hopes to study in New York at either Iona College or Marymount Manhattan College.

After finishing her studies, Dunn plans on going into the Forensic Interviewing field. A forensics interviewer mainly works with minors to try and gather facts about a traumatizing event they were part of or witnessed.

Sidhi Dhanda is a student at Hopkinton High School, Hopkinton, Mass.

More recently, Ava has been looking into broadcast journalism and hopes to learn more about the people and society around her.

“Many of us watch TV more than we read now, especially younger generations, due to advancements in technology, and [I want] to be able communicate to all different crowds,’’ she said.

Ava’s mother, Laurie, is a counselor at Manchester High School and runs her own clinic while her father, Kenneth, works as an insurance regulator. Ava also has one younger brother, Logan.

Rodjae Smith Photo.

Ava Roulier poses for a photo in the bookstore garden on Chapel Street, New Haven.

Ava is proud to say that when she was 9, she wrote a poetry book called “With Cherries on Top” and got it published.

She is a part of the Laurel East Hartford YMCA’s swim team, competing year-round for five years. Ava said that it is a very physical sport, and she keeps with it because she loves to push herself and get in better shape.

At the moment, Ava is also pushing herself to finish her summer Algebra 2 class so she can take pre-calculus next year.

Jax Dunn is a student at Great Path Academy and Manchester Community College.