By Dylan Bradley, Jamil Oakford and Ashley Wood/reporters
The jump from middle school to high school added a college twist for three early college high schools at TCC.
South, SE and NE campuses opened early college high schools this fall, a few months after the first class of the NW example graduated.
South Campus’ high school is partnered with the Everman Independent School District and, like the others, is designed to guarantee student success.
It is the only early college high school in the district that teaches college credit classes on a high school campus.
“This first year, the freshman students will be taking two dual credit classes, Fundamentals of Physical Education and a computer class,” Everman superintendent Jeri Pfeifer said.
Because the college credit classes are taken on the high school campus, students can eat lunch and do extracurricular activities with their peers.
“We only wanted to take 50 students but ended up taking 58 this year,” she said. “Next year, we plan to open up the program to 100 students.”
SE Campus’ early college high school enrolled 121 students this fall. The students chosen come from low socioeconomic families or are the first generation of graduates in their families.
“We want to help them understand college expectations,” SE assistant to the president Michael Cinatl said. “We want to get them to the point of being successful college students.”
The college classes they take and an A-B alternating class schedule common to high schools will dictate the student’s schedules.
The courses available to SE early college students are physical education, art appreciation, theater appreciation and speech classes.
NE Campus’ early college high school is partnered with the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District and calls itself the Collegiate Academy at TCC NE.
NE early college high school student Carlos Lozano said he chose to attend because he is getting his associate degree and high school diploma simultaneously.
This fall, 113 students enrolled and are taking Music Appreciation for their first college credit course. In the spring, they will move on to speech.
“It’s more connected,” NE early college high school student Jazmine Dawson said. “You stay more connected to your teachers versus a bigger school. You have a one-on-one connection with everybody here.”
Students also have clubs as extracurricular activities, including yearbook photography, art, debate and soccer clubs. A Destination Imagination club has students choose an academic subject and compete as teams.
“All 113 students are involved in some sort of club after school,” director Bobbe Knutz said.
Unique to the NE Campus high school is the tech club.
“They’re working on coding and even looking into some robotics and maybe enter into some of those competitions,” Knutz said.
The TR Campus early college high school was founded in 2011, and NW Campus’ early college high school was established in 2010.
“They have chosen a difficult road but with many opportunities along the way,” Pfeifer said.
