At 17, she will be the youngest graduate in UAA’s recorded history

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A 17-year-old from Palmer will make history this weekend when she becomes the youngest person to graduate from UAA since the school started keeping records in the 1990s.

Rainey Spurlock will also give the undergraduate commencement address on Sunday where she plans to highlight a special person — her grandmother, Brenda Spurlock.

“She went to every class with me on campus, she was with me all the time and we did it together. So, she was the reason I was able to complete this milestone,” Rainey said in an interview Friday.

Spurlock was just 13 years old when she started taking classes at UAA while still enrolled at Mat-Su Central, a hybrid homeschooling school.

Because she was too young to attend classes on campus without a parent or guardian, Brenda Spurlock also enrolled. She too will graduate on Sunday with a degree in communications.

“We never say no, we don’t think there’s a limit,” Brenda Spurlock said when asked about their accomplishments.

It’s an attitude that extends beyond academics. Brenda Spurlock adopted her granddaughter when she was five years old and helped her pursue a successful career as a child actor. The pair moved to Los Angeles but moved back to Alaska when a writer’s strike and Covid eventually ended those opportunities.

Rainey now has a relatively new venture as a recording artist. She’s been flying monthly to Nashville to write and record songs, including her demo Gemini, with more songs scheduled to drop on the same day that she graduates.

”I am extremely ambitious,” Rainey said. “I attribute that to why I was able to do this. Because, I have just believed in myself, and I have been so driven that I don’t care how hard this is, I’m just gonna do it.”

Both Rainey and her grandmother are now about halfway through the coursework for a master’s degree and say they plan to apply to law school in the fall of 2027. After that, both have said they would like to go for a doctoral degree.

As for being the youngest to graduate, Rainey said it’s a record she doesn’t particularly want to keep.

“I don’t want to stay the youngest for very long, I want to inspire people to do what I’ve done,” she said.

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