HAYDEN - Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy junior Vanessa Clements-Taylor is a "bit of a smarty-pants," as her mom says.

And it shows - Vanessa, 16, has a 4.3 GPA, she tutors other students in a number of different subjects, she is a well-rounded musician and a member of the National Honor Society, she speaks French and Latin, and, to top it off, her nearly perfect SAT scores are off the charts.

"She's an incredible student," said Vanessa's mom, Cindy Taylor of Hayden.

It's no wonder that Stanford University invited her to apply - and accepted her - into its High School Summer College program.

High School Summer College only accepts the world's best high school students and provides them the opportunity to take undergraduate courses and earn college credit before they graduate high school.

"I'm excited to begin college as early as possible," Vanessa said while sitting at her kitchen table Friday afternoon, a smile growing on her face. "Since I was 6 years old, I've always wanted to attend Stanford in particular. It's always been a dream of mine."

She has the drive, desire and fire inside to take on Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra as well as the astronomy-based Physics 15 classes. She's ready to make this dream come true.

There's only one problem: She's about $7,000 short of the $14,000 it costs for tuition, school fees, books, room and meals while she attends.

By the time Stanford informed them that Vanessa had been accepted, Cindy said they had no more reserve funds to help students with financial needs.

"They sent her an email back saying, 'Great, but we've run out of money,'" Cindy said.

The payment deadline is Monday.

"There's no (financial help) available for a program like this," Cindy said. "She's not a high school graduate, she's not old enough to get a student loan or anything else. She falls into this chasm."

Cindy is a single mom who works full-time as a massage therapist to support herself and her two teenage daughters. She had to recently move her business out of a studio for safety reasons and it has hurt their income.

"I was assaulted in my office, so I moved home," she said. "It has affected my business a lot."

Getting Vanessa to Stanford has become Cindy's No. 1 priority. Although expenses are due Monday, they may be able to extend the deadline until June 20 while incurring a 1 percent fee.

"What will end up happening is we will drive there, we will show up on the 20th, I'll give them what we have and say, 'OK, let's talk payment plan. You've got her, she's here, how can we do this?'" Cindy said. "I don't know what else to do to make it happen."

Hopefully for Vanessa, it won't come to that. They are trying to generate support through personal connections and social media and they're telling anyone who might be able to help.

"We're hoping a Stanford alumni or somebody who loves the school and sees the potential that Vanessa has will be like, 'Let me see what I can do,'" Cindy said. "Endowments, whatever's out there."

"We also want to get the word out about the opportunity," Vanessa added. "I think it's really good for the community to see that people can, especially with our educational ranking nationally - I think it's really important that they can see that someone can actually go to a school like this from here."

Vanessa is excited to spend her summer in Stanford's library, working on her senior project between classes. She wants to be a mechanical engineer someday, and she intends to double-major in math and physics with a focus on mechanical engineering. She wants to move to the United Kingdom and see the world when she gets older.

Stanford is the first step of that journey.

"It's really important to me to be able to be a part of something big," she said. "I want to be part of something huge, something that changes the world.

"This is the beginning of my life. I'm excited and scared and I'm ready for this. I need this."

Info: www.gofundme.com//vanessa2015