While still a Prospect High School senior, Lois Youngin Woo earned an impressive 10 degrees from West Valley College, the most collected by any member of the Class of 2025.
At 18, Lois wasn’t the youngest West Valley student to walk the stage at the 60th Commencement Ceremony in May. But one big achievement made her stand out that day — and led to millions of social media views — two weeks before she even graduated high school.
In a series of related social media posts, Lois answered followers’ most frequent questions, detailed every college-level course she took during high school, and the grand finale: a video of her crossing the WVC commencement stage arms outstretched to receive her stack of degrees.
“I got like 2 million views on TikTok and 1 million on Instagram,” she said. “In the video that really blew up at Commencement, the (West Valley) president is actually in it and some of the trustees.”
For each of her majors, Lois received an associate degree, an associate degree for transfer, or in some cases both. Subjects she studied were political science; sociology; law, public policy and society; child and adolescent development; culture and global studies; social and behavioral sciences; and arts and humanities.
“I didn’t go into high school thinking, ‘I need to come out with 10 associate degrees,’” she explained. “At first it was just kind of for fun.”
From there, she followed where her academic interests led, primarily in the humanities, a good fit for her future law school aspirations. For fall 2025, she transferred to University of California, San Diego where she plans to major in political science: international relations.
Some comments she received on social media, she said, discounted the value of her degrees because they’re in the humanities. Lois disagrees.
“I really want to put it out there that the humanities are so important,” she said. “We wouldn’t have our society without the humanities and STEM.”