Valerie Childress never went to college — and she was determined to give her quadruplets the chance that she never had.

The single mom, who has worked for three dozen years in administrative roles at the University of Southern California, found out about a new, unconventional high school — USC Hybrid High School — that was opening in 2012. Part of the Ednovate charter management organization, USC Hybrid High uses a blended learning model focused on personalized learning to prepare students for college.

She took what she called “a leap of faith” and enrolled all four of her children. This spring, all four of the quadruplets graduated — three from USC Hybrid High and one from Jackie Robinson Animo High School where she transferred — and all four are headed for four-year colleges.

Valerie credits the school for inspiring her kids to share her college dream.

“That was the core of everything that they did,” Valerie said. “The teachers and administrators all worked together for the same result.”

Her kids agree.

“USC Hybrid High gave me the motivation to succeed,” said Cambria Kelley, one of Valerie’s daughters. “Others schools I went to didn’t really have the tools to help me, or I was just a nameless person in a sea of people, but USC Hybrid High saw my individuality, and they reinforced it.”

Cambria’s brother Nikolas Kelley, added: “I just think the school did a really good job of making college seem normal. It didn’t really seem like anything that was crazy or out of reach or something that I couldn’t do. It just seemed normal to me. I thought that was really cool.”

Cambria and her siblings acknowledged that the environment at USC Hybrid made them want to go to college. In fact, their entire class of 84 students – the first to graduate from USC Hybrid – will be attending four-year colleges, most with scholarships.

Nikolas will attend California State University, Los Angeles, where he plans to major in mechanical engineering. He hopes, one day, to put his name “on something big, something revolutionary.”

Alexis Kelley, who, like Nikolas and Cambria, graduated from USC Hybrid High, will attend UC Merced and plans to focus on biomedical immunology.

Ashley Kelley, who transferred to another high school, will attend West Los Angeles College and looks forward to pursuing veterinarian and environmental sciences.

Cambria will attend University of California, Riverside, where she will major in creative writing. She is interested in becoming a teacher.

“Wouldn’t it be funny,” she said, “if I ended up as a teacher at USC Hybrid?”