COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Jenna Rock enjoys spending time with friends and dancing, attends parties now and again, and puts in time on her chosen athletic activity, Taekwondo.
Pretty typical 19-year-old.
However, there’s one thing that set Rock apart from her peers at Colorado Springs Early Colleges at graduation on Friday.
In four years of high school, she earned not only her high school diploma, but a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Colorado Technical University.
“I don’t think any other high school student has ever done it,” said Keith King, Colorado Springs Early Colleges founder and state senator for District 12.
Rock’s out-of-pocket expenses didn’t even top $900 under a program at Early Colleges that lets students concurrently enroll in high school and college courses, and the school pays tuition and expenses.
Rock didn’t set out to finish her bachelor’s in high school. She initially hoped to finish at least three years of college, she said. By the second semester her freshman year at CSEC, she knew she wanted to complete as much as possible.
As for her major, she searched through the CTU course catalog and picked the degree that required the most math courses.
“I knew I loved math,” she said.
Rock said it wasn’t hard taking classes with older students. In fact, she preferred being among those students, she said, even if she was vastly more excited because it was new to her but all in a day’s work for her college classmates, many already working in their chosen fields.
She said she sacrificed some things, especially during the regular school year. When friends planned fun activities, Rock sometimes had to pass.
“I had to be responsible and pick and choose,” Rock said, adding that she spent all of her high school summers studying.
Rock wasn’t the only one to take advantage of CSEC’s approach this year: 21 of the 124 graduates earned associate degrees along with their high school diplomas. It’s more than double the number from last year, when the first such group graduated.
“You might miss out on some things,” Rock said of pursuing college-level work in high school. “Putting in the elbow grease now is worth it.”
Benefits can be measured in years skipped and in money saved.
Rock has a well-paying job lined up with Honeywell, and is looking at starting her master’s degree in the fall. Plus she has her college degree debt-free—it cost her $836.
“I get to start my career and my life without anything hanging over my head,” she said.
CSEC is chartered through the Charter School Institute, and works with CTU, Pikes Peak Community College and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs to allow students to take courses for credit. Per pupil revenue from the state covers almost all tuition, books and fees for those who take advantage of the opportunity.
“You can offer more to students with what money is given,” said Jason Dilger, Early Colleges academic dean. “We’re doing it.”
CSEC has spent more than $2.5 million over the past four years on college costs for its students, he said, and almost all students graduate with at least some college credits.
Although Rock might be the first to take as much advantage of dual-credit earning as possible, she hopes she is only the first of many.
“I’m hoping they will see what I did and think, ‘hey, I can do that too.'”
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Information from: The Gazette,
