While many kids her age will be studying the waves at the beach or the price of clothes at the mall, Korina Coe will be studying chemistry and Spanish this summer—and at college, no less.

Coe, who is currently a seventh-grader at High Springs Community School, was selected by the Renaissance Learning Company to participate in this year’s Summer Institute for the Gifted at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Renaissance, which owns the Accelerated Reader program used in schools throughout the nation, is paying all Coe’s expenses during the three-week institute.

It will be the first time Coe’s ever been away from home without her family.

“I’m a bit nervous because I’ve never been away from my family, and we don’t travel a lot,” she said. “But I think it’s going to be awesome.”

In addition to the chemistry and Spanish courses that she’ll be taking five days a week for seventy-five minutes each day, Coe will also be taking a cooking class and participating in a variety of other enrichment programs at Emory. According to information provided by the university, the goal of the Summer Institute for the Gifted is to bring together students who are “committed to academic excellence, social and emotional growth, and creative and recreational excitement.” Students accepted to the program “are expected to perform at the upper level of their capabilities.” Coe says that’s just fine with her.

“I like to challenge myself a lot, and I’m pretty self-motivated,” she said. “I think this is going to be a really good experience for me.”

A student in High Springs’ gifted program, Coe is extremely well-rounded. In addition to maintaining excellent grades, she also runs track, is involved in the school’s book club and works as a media aide. Ultimately she’d like to become a pediatrician. Media specialist Judith Weaver, who recommended Coe for the institute, says the program will be a great step toward that goal.

“She’ll have a chance to see Emory, which is a place that she could eventually go to study medicine,” said Weaver. “I think she’s really going to bloom, and I think she’s going to knock them out with her talent.”