The Early College Program is new to Edmond Public Schools this year. All three high schools can have students apply, and 10 Santa Fe students are part of the first cohort.
Students apply during their 8th-grade year and must meet certain qualifications to join the program.
“Currently students must be either a first-generation college student or qualify for Oklahoma’s Promise,” College and Career Counselor Megan Cline said, “If they meet those two then they complete the application process packet and submit that to the schools.
First generation signifies that the student is the first in their family to attend college. Oklahoma’s Promise is a program offering students the opportunity to earn a scholarship if their parents’ income allows them to qualify.
Once accepted into the program, students will spend their freshman year attending various University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) college preparation days and orientation events with college and career counselors. After these events, they decide their pathway.
“We have four pathways that students can choose. So the pathways are pre-education, pre-nursing, business, or computer science,” Cline said
All students in the cohort take the same college courses together their sophomore year and the first semester of their junior year, then break into their pathway courses for the spring of junior year and all of senior year.
“I think the Early College Program is gonna bring such a higher learning, and that’s what I always wanted, I love to challenge myself,” freshman and member of the program Nazifa Abdullah said
These students are expected to complete 61 hours of college credit by the time they graduate high school. This will allow them to enter college as a junior and will give them the opportunity to transfer their UCO credits to another college.
