In a class by herself

COTTAGE GROVE — Welcome, graduate of the Class of 2011 …

Yes, you read that right — graduate. As in singular. As in only one.

Because Katie DaLene Hansen is not only at the top of her class with a 3.99 grade-point average, she is her class.

If you thought you were part of a small high school graduating class, well, it does not get any smaller than one.

Should make planning those reunions easy, huh?

But Hansen, who graduated from the Academy for Character Education, or ACE, a South Lane School District K-12 charter school, Friday night at Riverside Community Church during an all-school, year-end program, found nothing unusual about being the only one walking when “Pomp and Circumstance” played.

“It doesn’t really feel that weird to me because I’ve been used to having older kids and younger kids with me,” Hansen said. “It just feels normal to me.”

And she is not the only lone graduate of a Lane County high school this year. Cody Hooker of Logos Academy in Springfield graduates today as the only member of that charter school’s 2011 class, although a home-school student who took some classes there will also be part of the ceremony. Another lone high school graduate this spring is David Jones, of the Willamette Leadership Academy in Veneta, who graduated Thursday.

Hansen is the first student to complete the entire four-year high school program at ACE, located in the Church of Christ Family Center downtown. After being home-schooled through the seventh grade, she tested well and jumped straight into high school when the school opened its doors for the first time on Sept. 5, 2008. She is only the second student to graduate from the 70-student school, which had only seven high school students this year.

The school provides a classical liberal arts education — students read Plato and Aristotle, and Greek and Roman mythology, and study the Renaissance and the Reformation — and emphasizes building strong character traits as the foundation for a successful life.

“The transition from being a kid who had never been inside a public school to a kid who goes to a charter school with a fancy name like the Academy for Character Education was a little different at first,” Hansen said during her “graduate address,” for which she wore a silver cap and gown that she ordered online. “It meant having to actually go to a school and turn in homework every week, but I was willing to try.”

ACE students are only in class one day a week, Tuesdays, and study at home the rest of the week.

If you think that sounds easy, it’s not, said the school’s director of operations, Ranell Curl, the Oakridge woman who founded the school along with administrator Starr Sahnow.

“We are intensely academic,” Curl said. “It is very hard.”

ACE students are required to complete a minimum of 28.5 credits in core classes to earn a diploma, while the state minimum for public schools is 24. They must take two years of Latin in high school, four years of English and humanities and three years of math, among other requirements.

Hansen’s only “B” in four years of high school came in Algebra II her junior year. This year she’s been studying trigonometry and calculus in advanced math.

Despite having class with only the other six high school students at ACE once a week, Hansen was active in many other activities, such as the school’s drama club, in which she played the role of Mr. Dobbins in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” Her younger sister, Megan, 13, played the role of Tom Sawyer himself.

Hansen, the daughter of Rob and Dixie Hansen of Cottage Grove, was also editor of the school’s yearbook, and went to Cottage Grove High School three times a week to be part of the choir there.

Although shy and soft-spoken, she is passionate about singing and playing the piano. After walking down the aisle to “Pomp and Circumstance” on Friday, she took a seat at the piano on stage and sang and played “Over the Rainbow,” demonstrating her vocal talent and decent “pipes.”

Her math tutor, Peter Shoshin, described Hansen during the commencement address as a “quiet leader.” Shoshin, who admitted he was the one who gave her her lone “B,” said he “watched Katie perfect an amazing thing over the last four years, and that is the art of learning.”

A four-year college is not Hansen’s immediate goal. She plans to continuing living at home, since she won’t be 18 for another year, and take some classes at Lane Community College. Maybe photography, graphic design and some finance classes since she has aspirations of becoming a banker. “I really like the hours,” she said with a grin.