{"id":5638,"date":"2026-10-14T10:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/?p=5638"},"modified":"2026-10-14T10:18:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:18:27","slug":"biology-student-accelerates-college-journey-through-herd-academy-and-marshall-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/2026\/10\/14\/biology-student-accelerates-college-journey-through-herd-academy-and-marshall-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Biology student accelerates college journey through Herd Academy and Marshall For All"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Biology freshman Payton Austin is making the most of opportunities that have helped her advance her college career before many students begin their first semester. Through Marshall University&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/herdacademy\/\">Herd Academy<\/a> dual enrollment program, the Nitro High School graduate earned college credits while still in high school, allowing her to enter Marshall with sophomore standing and move quickly toward her academic goals.<\/p>\n<p>Austin, who plans to pursue a career in veterinary medicine, also earned a place in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/marshallforall\/\">Marshall For All<\/a>, the university&#8217;s debt-free education initiative. Together, those opportunities are helping her focus on her studies and future plans without the financial burden of student loan debt.<\/p>\n<p>Her experience highlights how motivated students can use programs like Herd Academy and Marshall For All to get ahead academically, reduce college costs, and create more flexibility for the future.<\/p>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/2026\/10\/13\/debt-free-education\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"button button--secondary \">\n\t\t<span>Read the full story about Austin's journey<\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biology freshman Payton Austin is making the most of opportunities that have helped her advance her college career before many students begin their first semester. Through Marshall University&#8217;s Herd Academy dual enrollment program, the Nitro High School graduate earned college credits while still in high school, allowing her to enter Marshall with sophomore standing and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":5642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-science-abstracts"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/460\/2026\/10\/biology-peyton-austin-herd-academy.jpg?w=640","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/460\/2026\/10\/biology-peyton-austin-herd-academy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5638"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5644,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5638\/revisions\/5644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}