May 10, 2011
Union County Early College graduating first class

MONROE – The legacy class. The guinea pig class.

They’ve been called both, but however you refer to them, the first group of super-seniors to graduate from Union County Early College High School looks back with a sense of accomplishment.

“It was a new program and we were the first ones in,” said Paige Moore of Monroe. “Anything that started, started with us.”

“I get to set the example for the classes after us,” said Destiny Reaves of Waxhaw.

Early College is a five-year program that allows students to earn a high school diploma and associate’s degree at basically no more cost to the student than a traditional high school. In Union County, the Early College is housed at South Piedmont Community College’s Old Charlotte Highway Campus in Monroe.

“For the parents, the fact that they’re getting two years of college at no cost is a bigger deal for them than it is for the kids,” SPCC President John McKay said. “It’s an educational opportunity for the kids, motivated kids that might not have done as well in a traditional high school.”

Sixty students entered as freshmen five years ago, and three more joined the class as sophomores the next year. Of that 63, the 28 who are left, along with four who are graduating early from the second class, will graduate from high school on Thursday (May 12). Of the 32, 23 will graduate from SPCC with an associate’s degree and one will graduate with a college diploma on Friday (May 13). The others all have college credits but not enough for a degree or diploma.

The super-seniors look back with pride on their years at the Early College and what they have accomplished.

Reaves, the youngest of three children in her family, is graduating with an associate in science degree and will transfer to Western Carolina to pursue a bachelor’s degree in nursing. “I didn’t know what to expect, really,” she said. “It seemed like a good thing because I could help my parents.”

“It was like a fresh start, meeting new people, new opportunities,” said Stephen Helbig of Indian Trail, who is graduating with an associate in arts and plans to pursue a degree in radio and broadcasting, either at UNC Charlotte or UNC Greensboro. “It was a lot different than a regular high school.”

Moore, who is graduating with an associate in arts, is transferring to N.C. State to major in political science with a concentration in international studies. She should graduate from there in two years.

It was not easy to get to this point, however, as the attrition rate would indicate. “It takes a special type of person to go through the program,” Moore said. “A dedicated student.

“It’s a growing experience,” she said. “You learn how to fit in.”

The things they have learned along the way should benefit the classes to follow. Thus, the “legacy” and “guinea pig” monikers.

“We started talking about being a legacy, and leaving a legacy,” Early College Principal Vicki McGovern said. “They were very flexible and very adaptable.”

They had to be, as the program has been tweaked every year. For instance, when the current super-seniors started, they were required to take one college course their first semester and there was at least one high school course their final year. Now, incoming freshmen take only high school courses the first year and the college courses don’t usually begin until the third year. Basically, some of the students were just not ready for college work.

“It’s just a big leap anyway (from middle school to high school),” McGovern said. “We found that having them start taking one course their freshman year was not having all the benefits we thought it would. We try not to set them up for a transcript that you can’t clean up.”

Most of the ones who have survived have thrived in the college environment. McGovern said that 23 qualified for admission to Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges. “The majority of them who do their homework and attend class are very successful,” McGovern said. “It’s deliberate that our high school courses are rigorous enough to get them to pass the College Placement Test in four semesters.”

“I liked it when it was more college courses,” Helbig said. “I felt more mature. We were treated like adults.

“The college students saw we actually did work hard,” he said “We started gaining their respect.”

Skills they have learned because of their college classes -- like self-motivation, independence, time management and note-taking -- will serve them well in future college classes and in life, the students say.

“I’ve been talking to some of my friends at other high schools and they’re talking about college, and I don’t think they’re ready,” Moore said.

For SPCC and Union County Public Schools, which operate the program jointly, space limitations have required some adjustments. “An early college doesn’t come with a set of directions,” McGovern said. “How you utilize the space, the faculty and course availability is the challenge.”

The Early College has forced the addition of 10 mobile units – eight classrooms, a bathroom and a food service building. The younger high school students cannot eat in the college snack bar; meals are brought in from a nearby elementary school.

Neither McGovern nor McKay expected having to add so many mobile units. The planned addition of another classroom building on the Old Charlotte Highway Campus would have alleviated some of the crowding, but not all of it. The building has been delayed because of county budget restraints.

“Overall, it has worked close to as expected,” McKay said. “I think the only thing that I misjudged in a big way was the amount of facilities they would need. The new building would have helped some, but with the other growth we’ve had, we still would have needed mobile units.”

There have been other adjustments in the merging of the two cultures. “The main thing is them wanting and needing to know where their students are every minute of the day,” McKay said, adding that once those students begin taking mostly college classes, “You don’t have to keep track of them quite as much.”

McKay said the college has benefited from the presence of the Early College in several ways. One, it adds FTEs, or full-time equivalents, to the formula the state uses to fund community colleges. It has also lowered the average age of SPCC students from 30 to 26 or 27.

“We’ve benefited from having younger students on campus,” McKay said. “It gives us more diversity in our student body. I’ve had older students tell me they enjoy that.

“It has helped grow our college transfer classes, which has attracted more people from the community,” he added.

McKay and McGovern are both retiring after this school year. While both are big proponents of the Early College, they do not expect much to change after they leave.

McGovern, who worked three years past when she could have retired to see the first class through, expects the school “to continue as successfully as this first graduating class has achieved.”

“Both institutions are in favor of it,” McKay said. “I think it will be fine.

“If you want it, if it’s a good idea, it’s right, then you find a way to make it work,” he said.

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Media inquiries: Rosemary Britt, 704-272-5342, rbritt@spcc.edu