Gage Sweet is preparing to graduate from the University of Cincinnati this spring, just one year after completing his studies at West Clermont High School, according to an April 17 announcement. Sweet is set to earn a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT), marking a rapid progression through higher education.
Sweet’s accelerated path was made possible by Ohio’s College Credit Plus (CCP) program, which allows public school students in the state to take college-level courses for credit at no cost. This program served as a foundation for his fast-tracked journey and enabled him to complete much of his undergraduate coursework while still in high school.
“I got my start playing the Xbox 360 and stuff way back in the day,” said Sweet, reflecting on how his early interest in technology grew into a professional ambition. He credited his pastor at Horizon Community Church with introducing him and his family to CCP: “He likes to study and figure out the best way to do things,” said Sweet. “So he knew how to do that process and walked my parents through it.” Sweet chose asynchronous courses directly from UC for their flexibility, saying, “I took mostly all asynchronous, so I could do it at my own pace, which has kind of always been my flow.”
By junior year of high school, Sweet was taking exclusively CCP classes at UC. Once he obtained his driver’s license, he attended some classes on campus and felt comfortable despite being younger than most peers. In addition to academics, Sweet worked at Horizon Community Church—first as an intern fulfilling graduation requirements and later advancing into a full-time production specialist role handling media tasks such as video work and lighting.
Outside academics and work responsibilities, Sweet played guitar with School of Rock’s house band around Cincinnati: “I’ve gotten the chance to play live a lot of places… We played probably 40 shows last year around the Cincinnati area.” As graduation approaches, he remains open about future career plans but feels well-prepared by UC’s BSIT program: “I definitely think the coursework itself had a lot of real-world application… I feel like that’ll be helpful in my work later in life.”
Looking back on his time at UC’s School of Information Technology (SoIT), Sweet expressed gratitude for both instruction received and support from counselors: “UC was very helpful with the CCP program. The counselors were very easy to work with and very helpful… I’ve not had that experience at UC.”
