Early College Model: Giving Students College Access in High School (Transcript)

Janice Lombardi: Right in here. This is wonderful.

Counselor: So I’m going to be talking with you today about ways that students can prepare for college. The application process, filling out financial aid paperwork, and scholarships.

Counselor: [Speaking Spanish].

Janice Lombardi: Over 80 percent of our students are first-time college goers. And Early College gives them a lift up. And not only does it change their lives, but it changes their families’ lives.

Janice Lombardi: An Early College, by definition, serves underserved students, first-time college goers. As a consequence, they don’t have experience in the study skills, the academic background.

Kenya: When you come from a family that doesn’t have school experience, like, for example, my dad, he dropped out of fourth grade, my mom just got her GED, coming to this school kind of helped me find that motivation to succeed.

Travis Smith: The ideal situation is that a student will graduate with their diploma, as well as their Associates degree.

Georgette: With this school, you have two years of college experience on a full tuition, so you don’t have to pay the classes. As an incoming freshman, I was not confident at all. Teachers always supported me, and they said that I was very bright, and that I was going to blossom.

Janice Lombardi: We take each student and grow them into phenomenal college-ready students. And we do that through a variety of strategies. We start with college classes that are not intensely academic.

Kenya: They give us, basically, the easier classes. And then as we start going up, sophomore year starts getting a little bit harder.

Janice Lombardi: And in the tenth grade year, they can take college trig, college algebra.

Kenya: So as you start going up, the classes start getting harder, the work starts getting heavier. And it gets pretty tough at times.

Sam Rodgers: So of course, that means the radius is 7P.

It’s beneficial that they can get high school credit and college credit as well. They get the same course, and everything is expected of all students that are enrolled.

Felonie: Taking the dual credit classes, you have to be responsible and decide, “I’m going to take this lesson home. I’m going to get in a study group.” If you don’t, well then you fail, and it’s on you.

Janice Lombardi: The supports that we offer to our students are varied. We do offer counseling support. One of the things that we see with this scaffolded instruction is that students become anxious. And so we have counselors who can identify their strengths, what they want to do.

Miss Crawford: All right, so go ahead, look at the choices that you have for next year.

Juan: Miss Crawford is great. She always tries to make sure I get the best schedule I can have. I’m trying to balance out my classes enough, so I can get to my goal, which is Associates degree, or at least close to it.

Miss Crawford: Put your dual credit check there. You also have to take the Economics and Government. Those two are needed to graduate. And then, of course, we’ll give you a Ace Period, which is time for you to study.

Janice Lombardi: We have dedicated Study Halls for students, because we know, given their home circumstances, they may not have a place to study, or a computer.

Sigifredo: It’s very useful to me, ’cause it helps me catch up on my work.

Xitlally: College classes are sometimes hard, because they give us a lot of tests. So we have to study, study, study.

Eduardo: We strongly believe that it has helped our daughter amazingly getting her experience in college.

Janice Lombardi: Parents are an essential ingredient in this whole Early College movement. We do treat them as equal partners here.

How are you doing today?

Good, how about you?

Good, good.

Parent: The high school that has assisted us with applications for universities.

Counselor: Colleges will be looking at the student’s high school transcript.

Counselor: [Speaking Spanish].

Janice Lombardi: Our culture of high expectations really means you can do it.

Good to see you.

“If you will join us, we’ll go down this pathway together. You will be successful.”

Kenya: It’s helped me mature throughout these years. I currently have 21 credits, and I’m taking four college classes right now. So I should have my Associate’s degree in 2016.

Georgette: Having four younger brothers that are aspiring to pursue higher education, I want them to see that dreams do come true if you pursue it with your heart and with passion. After graduation, I plan to attend Baylor University, and then go on to UT Southwestern Medical School.