Meghan Brunton recently achieved her elementary school dream of attending The Ohio State University as she moved into OSU on Aug. 19.

Brunton said “I have kind of just always known I wanted to go here since like fifth grade.” From that moment she knew OSU was the school she was working towards. What Brunton fell in love with was “how everyone who goes here has so much pride in their school, the state of Ohio, football and scarlet and gray!”

Brunton was inspired by the challenge of getting into OSU. Brunton knew what it would take to get into this college and set her mind to it. She made a goal and planned how she would achieve her dream.

To prepare for college, Brunton said, “I took as many AP classes as I could and I always did my homework and with a lot of dedication and hardwork.” Brunton ended up earning 45 credit hours from AP classes towards college. For her first semester at OSU, she is enrolled in 13 hours of classes.

Brunton will be applying for the elite nursing program at OSU for her sophomore year. As a part of the nursing learning community, everyone on her floor is majoring in nursing. Brunton will be able to collaborate with these students.

AP chemistry offered at Mayfield High School impacted Brunton immensely. Brunton said, “I learned how to take notes from a book and I had homework every night so I was really dedicated. I learned a lot of study skills from that class.”

Brunton took the ACT several times, getting better each time to achieve a score that would secure her a spot at OSU. Brunton knew her weaknesses and was tutored in those areas in order to reach her full potential.

Murray Brunton said, “Meghan applied for various scholarships and received a memorial scholarship for nursing and a scholarship for her act score, a 31. And also a PTSO scholarship.”

Brunton’s journey began in elementary school as her mother Jennifer Brunton said, “Meghan has been a conscientious student since elementary school. She always wanted to get good grades and was never happy with anything less.”

From then on, Brunton always tried her best at everything she attempted. Brunton worked at Pizzazz and played softball all while managing school work.

As a student athlete, Brunton said it was difficult for her to balance school, work, sports and social events. Jennifer said “She worked hard to have extracurricular activities to make her well rounded.” As a result, Brunton had to make sacrifices including leaving family dinners early in order to finish the 2-4 hours of homework she had every night.

Brunton said the hardest part was “probably keeping my GPA up and the application process.”

Murray said, “Meghan’s hard work can be seen in the fact that she was able to apply and get accepted to her number one college of choice. She is part of an incoming freshman class of 7,100 students chosen from over 51,000 applicants.”

It took a lot of hard work and dedication but Brunton graduated in the top 40 of her class with an Honors diploma. Brunton maintained above a 4.0 GPA all four years of high school and was a member of National Honors Society her junior and senior year.

After 14 years of school, Brunton said, “Finally, I’m where I belong!”