Vindication for a state college valedictorian

Emma Abby has won a Fulbright scholarship to study in Sweden. (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)

FRAMINGHAM - Emma Abby dropped out of high school but attended three colleges. Although a driven overachiever, she shunned private-school prestige for humble commuter schools. She spurned standardized tests on principle, but graduated from Framingham State College as valedictorian, a lone "A-" the only imperfection on her transcript.

Now, at age 20, this study in contrasts is off to Sweden for an environmental sustainability program, the first graduate of a Massachusetts state college to win a coveted Fulbright scholarship in a dozen years, according to the college. It's the culmination of a nonconformist educational journey that has scaled the heights of traditional academia.

"It's all worked out pretty well," she said last week at a local coffee shop, chuckling at her unconventional path. "I always had an idea of what I wanted, even if I didn't fit the stereotype of most overachievers."

Abby - who found out she had won the Fulbright just days after being named valedictorian, all while planning her late June wedding to her high school sweetheart - will begin a two-year master's degree program in environmental studies and sustainability this fall at Sweden's Lund University. Her husband-to-be, Kurt Holmes, whom she met as a high school freshman, will join her in the program, the fifth consecutive school the couple have attended together in a faithful campaign to remain close.

Their love, and her impatient, contrarian impulses, spurred Abby's nomadic - yet accelerated - ways. Entering Arlington High School in fall 2001, she said she immediately felt out of place, uncomfortable in a culture she considered impersonal and overly regimented.

Two weeks into school came Sept. 11, and Abby's isolation deepened. The attacks shook her worldview, and she felt misunderstood.

"It made me take a step back and look at the big picture, and I realized that no one there was on the same page as me," she said. "I knew I couldn't make it through four years there."

She begged her parents to let her find a new school, and they reluctantly agreed. Several schools she investigated didn't seem right, but one visit to Sudbury Valley School, an alternative school in Framingham without structured classes or grades, and she was sold.

"People were just so real," she said. "People were willing to talk to me, there were no cliques, and you could explore whatever you wanted to. It was the best decision of my life."

It wasn't long before she met Holmes, and the two soon became inseparable.

When he graduated in 2003, Abby struggled to envision high school without him.

As he began his freshman year at Massachusetts Bay Community College, Abby would glance at his assignments, and she realized they were well within her intellectual reach. Soon she hatched a plan to join him.

"I thought: 'Why sit here and waste two years? I can do this now,' " she recalled. "Dropping out and getting my GED was the only way."

Her parents, both educators, were far from pleased.

But Abby earned some good will by immediately enrolling in three classes at MassBay, with the stipulation from administrators that she could receive credit only once she earned her GED.

Her college career already underway, she finished high school at just 16.

After one year, the couple were ready for a change, and they transferred to Bunker Hill Community College for its older, more diverse student body.

As she completed her associate's degree with perfect marks, Abby considered applying to an elite private college.

But in the end, she decided she didn't want to borrow vast amounts of money to pay for a brand-name school.

"I'm cheap," she said, only half-kidding. "I think you can get a perfectly good education at a public college."

She and Kurt enrolled at Framingham State, and she spent two years there honing her belief in ecofriendly policies. She became an ardent environmentalist and led a student sustainability effort on campus.

Carl Hakansson, an environmental law professor at Framingham State who taught Abby in five classes and advised the sustainability campaign, described her as a practical idealist with rare discipline and determination.

"That's the secret to her success," he said. "She's kind of an underdog, attending community college and a working-class college. But she can compete with anyone at any level as far as I'm concerned."

The Institute of International Education, which administers the Fulbright program, said few students who attended community college vie for the scholarship, but organizers are trying to promote it as a realistic opportunity.

For Abby, the Fulbright provided a measure of vindication for her unorthodox educational career.

As she prepares for her upcoming wedding (a "green" ceremony, naturally, featuring organic food and flowers and her hemp silk dress), she said her recent string of honors has given her an unusual - and vaguely unsettling - status. Even her parents, for years perplexed by her path, are convinced.

"Now they trust me when I say I want to do something," she said. "Even if it sounds crazy."