With honors and on her way to UofM, student graduates Cass Tech after beating stage 4 cancer

DETROIT (FOX 2) - She's graduating high school with honors.

She'll be in college in the fall.

Oh, and she did it all while beating cancer.

"I can't tell you how proud I am," said her dad, John Smith. "All through school, young lady I never had to ask 'do your homework.'"

Brianna Smith, adorning a white mortarboard and wearing too many cords around her neck to count, is a remarkable person. With the threat of Stage IV Hodgkin's Lymphoma looming over her present, she remained studious and focused on her future.

And on Wednesday, at the Children's Hospital of Michigan in downtown Detroit, she walked down the hallways of the building to the tune of applause and smiles so wide they hurt the faces wearing them. Her send-off party celebrating her win over cancer and future at the University of Michigan.

Things weren't always this jovial though.

"When we finally found out I was devastated," said Angela Smith, Brianna's mom. "I couldn't even cry in front of her. I had to cry in private. I'm like 'if she's strong enough to go through this, then I gotta be strong with her.'"

The second half of Brianna's junior year at high school, she was homeschooled due to the intensity of the treatments. The disease had affected her spleen, bones, chest and abdomen. The treatment, described as "aggressive," forced her to work out a plan with her educators.

"I have a good relationship with my teachers and when they knew I was going through something like this, they said 'we're willing to work with you in every way to make it happen.'"

And boy did it happen. So much so that she received a full scholarship to the University of Michigan.

"You do have a lot of people that you don't even know about that are praying for you, rooting for you. And they love you," said Brianna's mom. "It's something about you."

One of those "people" was Kyle Desrosiers, her nurse at the hospital. 

"I don't want to put too much pressure on her now," he said, "but I know whatever it is she ends up doing, she will be great at it."

Brianna is looking at a career possibly in cyber security technology or computer science.