The teenagers sat in a darkened classroom.
Shades drawn over the windows blocked the summer sun and air conditioning blasted from above, chilling the room inside Denver’s on the first day of July.
The 2025-26 academic year had already ended, yet about 18 teenagers sat at desks, discussing motifs that appear in tales such as “The Great Gatsby” and Cinderella. They read short stories and learned to find subtext hidden in the text.
“I haven’t finished my short story from this morning,” 16-year-old Skye Meehan said.
“Oh! What are you writing about?” Sophia Levy, 17, asked.
Skye had started writing about a girl who discovered her grandfather’s secret affair by watching an old VHS tape titled “Christmas of ’87” that she discovered in her late auntap attic
“I have no idea where (the idea) came from,” Skye said.
Skye and Sophia are among the hundreds of students taking summer classes that will earn them both high school and college credit.
The number of DPS students taking these concurrent enrollment classes increased from 88 in 2022 to more than 225 this summer. The students in the advanced classes are separate from the more than 1,200 pupils who attend traditional summer school to receive additional academic help.
“Concurrent enrollment, in general, is getting more popular,” said Tara Schneider, senior manager of higher education academics at DPS. “…This is our largest summer class ever.”
Concurrent enrollment classes can help students who want to earn an associate degree — typically a two-year post-secondary degree — during high school and offset the costs of going to a university, she said. The classes are only available to high schoolers, and the credits can be used when students attend a four-year university.
The summer program lasts for five weeks and offers students eight different courses in-person and online, including creative writing, algebra and African American history, she said.
DPS partners with the and the so that students can receive college credits for their classes.
Skye and Sophia each decided to take creative writing this summer. Skye said she decided on that class because she wanted time to pursue her interests despite her schedule being jammed-packed with Advanced Placement and science courses during the school year.
“Writing is one of my passions,” the junior said. “I always wanted to do it on the side.”
Sophia, a senior at , is in school this summer to boost her grade-point average after having health issues as a sophomore. She intends to apply to the , and the concurrent-enrollment class will help her get the necessary GPA.
“I really enjoy writing, so it’s good to get back into it,” she said.
Down the hall, in the pre-calculus classroom, Sen Higashida, a piano major at the , was also already back in school.
“I wanted to get ahead in math and bump up my school rigor,” the 15-year-old said.
Sen, a junior, said he is interested in exploring more STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics — classes in college and thought taking a college-level pre-calculus course this summer would help prepare him to apply to more prestigious colleges and potentially earn scholarships.
“It would definitely help a lot with college applications,” he said. “…I’d like to go to a very solid school.”
Carlo Carron, a senior at , had a similar goal in mind when he decided to take college-level algebra this summer. The 17-year-old wants to earn an associate degree while in high school to prepare for college and a career in engineering.
“I just want to advance into my career,” he said.
