Whitney: My name is Whitney, and I live in Eminence, Kentucky. I live with my mom and my two younger siblings. I go to school at Eminence Independent and Bellarmine University. I’ve always had a thing for anatomy.

Buddy Berry: Whitney’s a special young lady, and our early college program has been her vehicle to see the potential of her future. The Eminence spirit is to keep looking forward. What drives us is giving kids the freedom and the empowerment to do whatever they put their minds to. We want to give them opportunities and experiences that would far exceed anything that any generation of Eminence student had ever had before.

Thom Coffee: We felt like we were having students graduate academically prepared to go to post-secondary education, but kids would go, they would spend maybe a semester, maybe two, and then all of a sudden they’re back in town, they didn’t complete.

Buddy Berry: We were having huge drop-out rates, and so we needed to do something.

Thom Coffee: Dr. Barry and I called Bellarmine University and said, we have a crazy idea we’d like to pitch to you.

Buddy Berry: And with one yes, the Bellarmine-Eminence partnership was born. 250 kids have gone through it, and 249 are still in college.

Graham Ellis: So this was an opportunity in a relatively safe environment to get them thinking about college, what college is like, what college-level work is like, and let those students explore a little bit rather than just throwing them in the deep end. College, especially if you come from a family that has no college experience, it’s very daunting.

Linda (Whitney’s Mom): I didn’t go to college, so I think it’s done good for Whitney. She’s always been a go-getter, and she wants to be a neurosurgeon.

Whitney: My mom’s been supportive, but it’s a little difficult because she doesn’t know how to help me out, so I’ve had to turn to my teachers and my counselor.

Thom Coffee: And so I want to make sure that you know what courses to look for next year. Sometimes it’s as simple as, I just need somebody to tell me not to give up. They can do the work, they’re capable students, but they need the support network.

Buddy Berry: One barrier that we found was, a lot of these homes didn’t have internet service. And so, we created a WiFi school bus.

Whitney: And honestly, it’s amazing. Say I wrote a paper the night before, I forgot to make corrections on it, I can use that WiFi while I’m going to school and then send it on its way.

Graham Ellis: In their first year, they take Bellarmine courses from our Bellarmine faculty, but just for the Eminence students.

Whitney: We took English 100, a Human Geography class, and a Speech class. It was kinda rocky at first, I didn’t raise my hand or anything. If I didn’t understand anything I just went home and tried to figure it out myself. But in college, you have to ask your professor questions or they’re just going to move on and you’re going to be so lost. This year is my second year in. Honestly, it was more comfortable. I felt like I knew what I was supposed to. I have a question.

Teacher: So, epiphyses are the ends of the bone, and diaphysis is the shaft, the…

Whitney: My second year, I actually got to choose my classes after finishing my GenEd courses my first year. I chose Anatomy and Physiology, and then I also chose Western World History.

Thom Coffee: So sometimes those exploratory classes, of I may be interested in this and I just want to put my toe in the pool and see if I like the water, is a valuable thing. We want to give them flexibility.

Jared: You can basically do whatever you want. I’m taking a Psychology class and I’m taking a Theology class this semester.

Thom Coffee: These classes are straight college credit. They would transfer just like anybody who went to a university their freshman year and decided to switch universities. Some of the courses, for example English 101, we would also credit them with a senior English credit here. So, you have nine hours of elective transfer credit, and then you’ve already got 27 of the 39 hours. So you’re really close.

Jared: It actually shocked me, because I’m going to have a lot of the credits out of the way.

Whitney: Where I’d be going to school for neuroscience, it would be for five years. Instead, now it’s going to be for four years. So that’s even better, because it gets me into med school quicker and I can go ahead and start what I want to do.

Thom Coffee: For a lot of these kids, they’re leaving high school with more hours than somebody in the family has ever earned. And so, it’s really that proof before they move away and are on their own that they can do it and they can succeed.

Whitney: The Bellarmine program has taught me that I can do this, like I can finish college, I will finish college. And it just makes me really excited for the future.

Linda: I’m very proud of you.

Whitney: Thank you, thank you.

Linda: You’ve done very…

Schools That Work

Eminence Independent Schools