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LU grad finished with 4.0 in 2 1/2 years
Dec 26, 2009 (The Beaumont Enterprise - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
With many college students on the five-, six- and even seven-year plan, Kayla Tompkins could be considered a rarity.
Tompkins, 20, received her bachelor of business administration degree in accounting last week, finishing in 2 1/2 years even though working part time.
She earned a 4.0 grade point average and was honored as the top female graduate in her class.
"I was just happy that all of my hard work paid off," said Tompkins, who will begin after the New Year full-time at Pollans & Cohen, an accounting firm where she's been an intern for the last six months.
To Tompkins and those who know her, this achievement is nothing more than business as usual.
As a child growing up in Nederland, she developed perfectionist tendencies and a strong work ethic, said her mother, Sharon Tompkins, 53.
"If it wasn't a 100, it (wasn't) good enough," Sharon Tompkins said by phone. She'd assure her daughter that Bs were OK, but Kayla Tompkins would have none of it.
"I think I've just always really strived to do my best at everything that I do," Tompkins said recently during a phone interview. "Doing something good has never really been good enough for me."
The third of four children, Tompkin thrived at being busy and excelled at each of her activities.
They including twirling and playing the clarinet in Nederland school bands. She participated in the honors band all four years of high school and served as drum major her junior and senior years.
"Even as a ninth-grader coming up, I knew she was somebody who was special in terms of her approach to everything," said Greg Rose, the Nederland High School band director who worked with Tompkins those four years.
Rose said a lot of students are good at one thing and work hard at that, but Tompkins' work ethic and talent spread to many things.
"I know she put a lot of pressure on herself too," he said. "Her expectations of herself are (high) -- but again I think that's part of the key to her success. A lot of that drive is internal for her."
Read more in Saturday's Beaumont Enterprise.
To see more of The Beaumont Enterprise, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.www.beaumontenterprise.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Beaumont
Enterprise, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For
reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or
847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group
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