Misty Copeland

The summer before her fifteenth birthday, Copeland and Bradley decided to pursue homeschooling to free up time for dance. At fifteen years old, Copeland won first place in the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards. The competition was held at the Chandler Pavilion on March 24, 1998, and Copeland said it was the first time she ever battled nervousness. The winners received scholarships between $500 and $2500. Copeland's victory in the 10th annual contest among gifted high school students in Southern California secured her recognition by the Los Angeles Times as the best young dancer in the Greater Los Angeles Area.
Copeland studied at the San Francisco Ballet School after winning the Spotlight award. While training with Bradley, she selected the workshop with the San Francisco Ballet over offers from the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theater of Harlem and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Of the programs she auditioned for, only the New York City Ballet declined to make her an offer. During the six week workshop, Copeland was placed in the most advanced classes. She was under full tuition plus expenses scholarship at the San Francisco Ballet summer workshop. At the end of the workshop, she received one of the few offers to continue as a full-time student at the school, but with encouragement from her mother to return home and from Bradley to return to the personal attention the Bradley family offered, she declined with visions of a subsequent summer with ABT. She returned home to controversy as her family resented the Bradley's influence. They asked Copeland to resume her residence with them, resume study at San Pedro High School and sought Cantine's advice on finding a new ballet school. Soon she began her junior year at San Pedro and her ballet studies with former ABT dancer Diane Lauridsen of Torrance's South Bay Ballet at the Lauridsen Ballet Center. As a student, Copeland had a 3.8/4.0 GPA through her junior year of high school.