Isabelle Miller will walk up to the front of The Tabernacle on Saturday afternoon to receive her high school diploma.

Not even a car wreck or a global pandemic could prevent her from accomplishing that goal.

On June 1, 2019, she was trying to make it back to her Reddington home by her curfew of 9:30 p.m. when she wrecked her vehicle, going down a 10- to 12-foot ravine and landing in water.

“I just took my seat belt off so I could run in when I got home because my dad said, ‘Not a minute late.’ It was 9:28, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to make it home,’” Miller said.

The vehicle landed in the water on the driver’s side, so Miller had to push the passenger-side door above her and climb out.

By the time her parents, James and Tiffany Miller, and emergency personnel arrived, she was on dry land but had blood gushing from her head. Her hands also were scraped up and she had pieces of glass in the left side of her face.

“That’s why senior year, I was like, ‘I shouldn’t really be here today,’ so it made me really enjoy senior year,” Miller said.

Her final school year at Sandy Creek Christian Academy in Seymour was going good until mid-March when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close and finish with eLearning.

“I was like, ‘All right, God, what more can I handle here?’” Miller said.

The school’s formal was postponed, and the five members of the Class of 2020 weren’t able to participate in graduation May 16.

Now, though, graduation is at 2 p.m. Saturday, and the formal is set for September. Miller is the valedictorian of the class and will deliver an address at graduation.

“It has been a dream of mine to graduate top of my class and just to get that chance to give a speech,” the 18-year-old said. “It was really cool that they did that for us.”

Miller was born in Indianapolis and her family moved to Seymour when she was 9 so her father could take over a church. She was homeschooled through eighth grade and then began attending Sandy Creek.

As a freshman, she was involved with chapel and served as costume director for the school play.

“I’m not a shy person, but my first year there, I was pretending I was shy, and so when they did the play tryouts, I was like, ‘I’ll just be in the background,’” Miller said. “I loved it, but at the same time, I wanted to be out there.”

As a sophomore, she again was involved with chapel but this time had the lead role in the play, which was “Radium Girls.” She said a lot of students were at tryouts and she was unsure if she would land the lead role, but she did.

A memorable moment was when she forgot her props and had to ad lib a scene with a student who was playing the role of her boyfriend.

“He took it and ran with it, and we just ad libbed the whole scene,” Miller said. “It was very fun.”

The school did a radio program for its play her junior year, and Miller played a small role in it.

Also at Sandy Creek, Miller served as vice president of the student body her sophomore year, president as a junior and honorary president as a senior.

“I just liked being in that place of leadership where I could just really be an example,” she said. “My teacher always said, ‘You’re a junior. You’re a senior. The kids are looking at you,’ so I just made sure I was as involved as I could be so that way, all of these kids, when they got to my age, they would be like, ‘Oh, remember what Isabelle did?’”

Academics were important to Miller, too. She earned dual credits with criminal justice, forensics, psychology, precalculus and physics classes and received the title of class valedictorian.

“I really enjoy school — always have, always will,” Miller said. “I just really applied myself my freshman year. I did make good grades. I had straight A’s and B’s, but starting my sophomore year is when I really tried to have straight A’s all the way through.”

Finishing her senior year learning at home was tough, Miller said.

“If I’m being honest, I hated it,” she said. “I am such a social butterfly. … My little brother and I, we’re very social and we want to be out and talking to people, so when we were homeschooled, it was a nightmare. Finishing out my senior year, I had so many expectations and everything.”

Students initially were told school would be out for two weeks, but it wound up being until early May.

“We never got the proper goodbye, so that too was hard,” Miller said. “Then also, my teacher ended up getting COVID and I worked for her, so I was out of work. From May to July, I had no money coming in, so I ended up getting a full-time job.”

She is working at a day care in North Vernon and plans to save up money so she can go to college next year to study forensics and business.

“I ultimately want to be a forensic scientist studying all of the crimes,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to be a police officer, and then I was like, ‘I don’t think I would be cut out for it.’ I listen on Sirius XM to HLN all the time, so I’m like, ‘That sounds cool to me. I think I want to do that.’”

Staying busy during high school has set Miller up for the future.

“I think for any high school student, keeping yourself busy and involved is key. If you’re in high school and you want to make those four years worth it, get involved,” she said.

“If you didn’t do anything, you’ll just look back and you’ll forget all of your memories. But when you’re involved and other people are involved, you make memories together,” she said. “That was really important for me with making friends and having memories and staying involved. It made high school worthwhile for me.”

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What: Sandy Creek Christian Academy graduation

When: 2 p.m. Saturday

Where: The Tabernacle, 301 Indianapolis Ave., Seymour

Who: 5 members of the Class of 2020

Valedictorian: Isabelle Miller

Salutatorian: Ethan Byrne

Note: It’s open for people to attend, and they are asked to practice social distancing and wear face masks

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Name: Isabelle Miller

Age: 18

Residence: Reddington

School: Sandy Creek Christian Academy

School activities: Chapel, school play, student body vice president, president and honorary president

Future plans: Attend college and study forensics and business

Family: Parents, James and Tiffany Miller; brothers, Blake (Hannah) Miller and Landon Miller

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