PVCC Puma Press: December 2002

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	Photo Courtesy of Heather Anderson
	High school student and PVCC student leadership council president, Halina Reed, attends classes at PVCC.
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Imagine that you are in high school. It’s so crowded that in one or more of your classes, you are actually sitting on a lab stool in the back of the classroom. Would you be able to learn like that?

Halina Reed, PVCC’s Student Leadership Council president, did not believe she could. She is now one of 455 high school students attending PVCC. Many high school students are finding that high school is not the most productive place for them to learn, and they are leaving their peers behind to go to community college.

Reed took a math class at night at PVCC during the spring semester of her freshman year at Horizon. That summer she took a study class at PVCC; in the fall she enrolled in six credit hours of classes at the college, and she no longer attended Horizon. Additionally, while taking classes at PVCC, she has taken a few classes at area charter schools.

Reed believes that the PVCC atmosphere is much more conducive to learning than was her high school.

“The teachers here are more accessible then the ones in high school,” says Reed. “They ‘re here and want to help.”

Reed and her parents spoke to the administrators at Horizon High School and arranged for her to receive her high school diploma and to take only one more class at Horizon. Reed has decided that class will be AP Government in the spring semester of her senior year.

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A nontraditional student might transfer into a university at the age of 18 with enough credits to qualify as a sophomore or higher
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This fall, Reed began her second year at PVCC; it is also her junior year of high school. While she is still involved in clubs at Horizon, such as the Society of Women Scholars, she is also PVCC’s student life president and she participated on the “Puma Press” staff last year.

Any high school students, like Reed, who do not wish to finish high school may attend PVCC, due to its open enrollment policy. However, they must go through a screening process first.

Stella Napoles, supervisor for admissions and records, meets with these prospective students and their parents. (Parents must be present if the student is under 18.)

Napoles explains to the students what will be expected of them at PVCC. After the initial meeting, students must take the English placement test and place into the English 101 level to be admitted to the college.

If students do not pass the placement test the first time, they may retake it until they do. High-school-aged students are not allowed to take more then six credit hours during their first semester of classes at PVCC.

If in the first semester of six credit hours, students do well; they take nine hours during the second semester. If that goes well, they may take 12 hours in their third semester and so on. Students are monitored closely during their semesters by Napoles because there is no age limit—PVCC has had students as young as 14.

“We don’t want them to fail,” says Napoles. “We want them to do well.”

One major concern for students who do not complete high school in traditional style or receive their GED’s is whether the universities of their choice will accept them.

According to ASU admissions requirements, a student may attend ASU without any problems, regardless of age, if they have any one of the following credentials:

Their GED with a score of 50 or higher;
A high school diploma with a GPA of 3.0 or higher;
An associates degree from any community college with a GPA of 2.5.

This can mean that a nontraditional student might transfer into a university at the age of 18 with enough credits to qualify as a sophomore or higher.

According to Napoles, most of these young students feel they are not learning all they can in high school; they want something more challenging.