Broadway-bound student owes much to TTU K-12

By Leslie Cranford, Media Relations Coordinator

April 6, 2018

"Princess, you look just like me!" Belle told four-year-old Presley Duyck. It was that moment at Walt Disney World that first sparked the imagination and hopes of young Presley: that she could someday also be a singer and actress, just like the young woman playing the heroine from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast".

Presley, the daughter of Michelle and Joel Duyck, is now 17, and well on her way to Broadway. Because of the TTU K-12 high school curriculum that allows her to learn at her own pace, she will graduate early. Unlike typical high school theater kids, she has her days free to take extra dance, voice and acting classes, some even on the college level. In the theater world, someone who has all three skills is called a "triple threat."

After that early, brief encounter at Disney World, "Beauty and the Beast" became a recurring theme in her life.

"When I was 11, in fifth grade, I got to do my first musical, and it was 'Beauty and the Beast'," Presley said. "I wanted to play Belle. So I watched the movie, took notes on all her mannerisms, and thought 'I can do this!' So I auditioned for it, it was really scary, and I just knew I didn't get the part. But I got it! I got to be Belle, which is one of the very special moments of my life."

"It actually came back again last year. I was kind of in a slump with theater, and I thought maybe I'm not good enough, maybe I shouldn't do this. But an audition came up, and I did 'Beauty and the Beast' again! And here I am, graduating early to do theater. So ever since I was itty bitty, I've known this is what I wanted to do."

Now that Presley has been homeschooling with TTU K-12, she sees the difference daily in not attending a brick-and-mortar school.

"In a public school, you have set times you have to be there, and you are stuck in the building. TTU K-12 works better with my schedule," Presley said. "If I have a college performance class in the morning, I'm not limited to when I have to do the schoolwork. I can do my schoolwork at night if I need to, it just fits wherever I need it so I can take those daytime college classes. It's nice to be able to arrange my schedule in a way that exceeds a normal training schedule for a theater kid in a regular high school."

Presley's mom, Michelle, was understandably apprehensive about pulling her out of public school for her to homeschool.

"When I first started looking for a program for her, I wanted to be sure it was an accredited program. It was a little bit scary thinking about pulling her out of public school, knowing that college is around the corner; so I had a lot of questions," Michelle explained. "I contacted the counselor at TTU K-12, and she was so wonderful. She answered every question I had. When I went back to her with more questions, she answered those questions as well. She was very enthusiastic, and very open and honest, about everything. She made us feel really good about enrolling. It was an exciting day for us when we got the note saying 'she's a Red Raider!'"

Michelle also pointed out the similarity between homeschooling skills and the abilities necessary for being a successful actor, and ultimately, a successful person.

"Being a theater student requires so much discipline. She's actually been very disciplined for years, in terms of her art," Michelle said. "When she's studying and working on her craft, she's disciplined in terms of memorizing her lines, her dance, going to the local gym to get her dance down on her own time, memorizing songs, picking out the harmonies. Those are skills she also has had to have academically. It's interesting that the two work together so well. Just as she's a good theater student, she's a good academic student. They're very intertwined and equally important to being a whole person."

Presley's time-management skills have been crucial the closer she gets to graduation. In addition to performing in Collin College Theater's production of "Heathers, the Musical" this spring, Presley has spent countless hours preparing for and attending college theater auditions.

"I have some really great colleges on my list; I'd be lucky to go to any of them. NYU, Carnegie Mellon, Manhattan School of Music, Roosevelt, Pepperdine, Molloy-CAP21. I applied for about 20, and we narrowed it down to 10 that I'm really looking at," Presley said.

Michelle says they were worried that colleges might not readily accept her TTU K-12 diploma, because Presley was not going the typical public school route. She found out quickly her fears were unfounded.

"Not only is there no problem with the acceptance of her diploma, the scholarship offers she's already received are overwhelming; she's received offers from almost all of the schools where she's been accepted. None of them have had even a question about where she's coming from academically, or the prep she's getting from TTU K-12.

"In fact, most of the programs have been intrigued, even impressed, because a student who can get themselves through this kind of program, who has their own motivation to get their work done, they're bound to do well in college," Michelle said.

She added that because Presley applied to so many schools, she's had about $600,000 in scholarship offers.

Preston Page, who has been Presley's voice teacher for nearly four years, helped her college application process by writing some of Presley's recommendation letters to college theater programs.

"When I was writing her letters, I said, 'you can accept her or not, but she's going to be an inspiration to the other students with her work ethic, her talent and her dedication, her humility.' I think there are a lot of smart students in the world, but I think Presley is going to succeed, because of her kindness, her dedication and her artwork, but also because of her passion and enthusiasm."

With TTU K-12, Presley has had the freedom to prepare for success and pursue her dreams on her own terms.

"I want to go to school for musical theater and perform – whether on Broadway or regional. I just want to perform," she said. "I also would love to give voice lessons and be a teacher, because mine have been so influential to me; I would love to be someone's teacher and inspire them like I've been inspired.

"My decision to attend TTU K-12 is one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's been wonderful – I wouldn't change it for anything."

Watch more videos about TTU K-12 and our students on our YouTube channel.