Dual credits give students valuable jumpstart

    For Trevor Dalton of Holyoke, a wise move in high school gave him a step up over his college classmates before he ever stepped foot on his college campus.
    Dalton, like many other local students, chose to enroll in classes that gave him dual credit for both high school and college. Twenty-one credits, to be exact, from seven different classes. And 19 of those credits transferred when he started at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley in the fall of 2014.
    “These classes are a benefit to kids in our community,” said Holyoke JR/SR High School counselor Angela Powell.
    First of all, taking college classes as a high schooler gives students an added edge by teaching them what college classes are like and how the expectations are different. It’s good exposure, said Powell.
    In Holyoke, classes could be taught by an HHS teacher who is qualified or through what they call “distance learning,” where the students stay in a classroom in Holyoke but can see and hear everything that a class at Sterling’s Northeastern Junior College is. “It’s literally like they are there in the room,” said Powell. Students interact with NJC teachers, ask questions and turn in homework just like they would with HHS teachers.
    Dalton said it’s a lot more comfortable and less stressful to be in a familiar classroom with a handful of friends and classmates, in comparison to a huge classroom with hundreds of others on a big college campus.
    Dual credits also help financially, and “that makes a huge difference,” said Powell. Holyoke School District will pay for four credits of tuition (not fees) each semester for juniors and eight credits (not fees) each semester for seniors as long as they earn at least a C.
    Additionally, the college credits students earn in high school could help them graduate early, knock out general college classes or fulfill prerequisites for graduate school. Dalton said it even helped him free up some time to add a minor to his sport and exercise science major and still graduate on time.
    He said he chose to take a variety of college credit classes while at HHS, mostly because he needed to have classes in certain subject areas to graduate so it made sense to make them college credit classes. And by taking post-secondary and advanced-level classes, he fulfilled one of the requirements of his earning valedictorian honors.
    Powell said that for most students, the college classes they take at HHS are based on interest in the subject and the level of the class. “The college credit is an added bonus,” she said.

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