Success Stories
High School Students Earn College Credits for Free
Story by Chris Cunningham
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| Featured on the Fall 2005 class schedule: Keely Muscatell, former College Now student and current University of Oregon student and Kent Glazier, former College Now student and current Lane student. |
The program benefited me financially and also helped me to get a head start in my field. - Kent Glazier
Sometimes the best things in life are free. Take Lane's College Now program - a learning opportunity available to high school students in Lane County at no cost. Kent Glazier says the program's professional technical coursework saved him $1,500 in college expenses even before he completed high school. And Keely Muscatell credits a College Now chemistry class along with her high school's advanced placement and international baccalaureate courses for giving her the chance to graduate from the University of Oregon in just three years.
For more than 20 years, College Now has provided students like Glazier and Muscatell with early opportunities to take lower-division college-level coursework at their high schools. Recently the college removed the $30 fee for College Now classes, so students can take the classes without spending a dime.
Although Glazier, a first-year student in Lane's child development program, says he doesn't intend to graduate from Lane ahead of schedule, he's delighted that the accumulation of college credits during high school has allowed him to take fewer classes now. "It's left me time to have an outside job," explains the 19-year-old student. "The program benefited me financially and also helped me to get a head start in my field."
Glazier, an '04 graduate of Willamette High School, saved money by taking 26 Lane credit hours in computer, English and child development classes, many of which are required for early childhood education majors. He also worked in the Head Start preschool that adjoins Willamette High School. "I've been able to bypass some classes and also some early childhood lab time," Glazier says.
Muscatell, a graduate of Sheldon High School, praises chemistry teacher Hans Volwerk for maintaining a fast learning pace and holding the students to a higher standard. She learned "how to work really hard," while simultaneously earning both high school and college credits that transferred to the University of Oregon. As a freshmen at the UO, she was able to take a sophomore-level organic chemistry class. College Now "saved me a lot of money," says the 20-year-old Muscatell, who is graduating next June with a double major in psychology and Spanish and a minor in chemistry.
Both students say program enrollment was as easy as looking at high school syllabi to see what classes were designated for College Now credit and then registering for the classes.
High school juniors and seniors are eligible to enroll in College Now's academic transfer courses in art, English and French, math, science, and social science. Students usually are able to transfer course credits to other post-secondary institutions in the Oregon University System without ever attending Lane.
Freshmen and sophomores as well as juniors and seniors, are eligible to enroll in College Now's professional technical curricula in automotive technology, business, computer information technology, construction, culinary and hospitality services, drafting, early childhood education, electronics, health services, and welding. Lane developed the professional technical course content to eliminate unnecessary duplication that can occur between high school and community college classrooms, says Judith Gabriel, College Now's program coordinator at Lane.
Gabriel says studies indicate that students who enroll in College Now classes are "as well prepared or better prepared than their peers, and they continue to perform well and meet or exceed standards" following high school graduation.
"In many cases, the high school instructors are harder graders than the instructors at the community college," remarks Gabriel, who has been managing the program almost since its inception in the '80s.
Instructional offerings vary from year to year, Gabriel says. Next year, College Now will offer several new classes. Among them are French, physics, ceramics, and probabilities and statistics. A complete listing of classes is available on Lane's Web site at: 2011sitearchive.lanecc.edu/hsconnections/.
Instructors like Sheldon's Volwerk "feel good knowing they are helping the students get ahead," says Gabriel, who explains that high school instructors who teach College Now classes use the same texts, course outlines and teacher manuals as instructors at Lane. And they hold the students to the same high standards.
Muscatell acknowledges that College Now classes "will force you to work and get you out of your comfort zone." But the trade offs, she says - college-level courses at no cost, transferable credits and accelerated graduation - are well worth the effort.
