Now you can earn a high school and college degree at the same time

High school students at Gloucester County Institute of Technology will be able to enroll at the Gloucester County community college next door in their senior years, under an agreement signed Friday between the two schools.

Known as the Gloucester County Institute of Technology Collegiate High School Program, the initiative gives GCIT students the option of earning up to 30 credits at Rowan College at Gloucester County during their senior year. Students would spend the day on the community college campus taking classes taught by that school's faculty.

With existing dual enrollment options to take courses for college credit, some students already are able to accumulate 30 credits their first three years of high school. The new program could mean racking up 60 credits by the time they graduate — finishing high school and an associate's degree at the same time.

"It's important that we continue to widen the pathways to success," Michael C. Dicken, superintendent of GCIT, said at the signing ceremony.

Students in the program will pay discounted tuition and fees rates. Citing the lowered cost of credits and structured transfer system, Dicken and other administrators described the agreement as addressing issues of college affordability and accessibility.

"That would save a ton of money," said Casey Sanders, 17, a GCIT senior from Mullica Hill who is earning credit from Rowan College in courses taught on the GCIT campus. With three other such classes she plans to take next semester, she will earn 12 college credits by graduation, she said.

"It would be amazing" to have had the option to earn more credits through what the schools call a "shared senior year," she said. "I would have loved to do this."

For another senior, Eric Kohn, spending a year at the community college would have been "a huge boost" academically and, he said, would have exposed him to more people from other backgrounds.

Kohn, 17, has taken classes at the community college since his freshman year and will have received about 30 credits by graduation, he said. The senior-year program would have gotten him an associate's degree, or close to it, and at the same time would have introduced him to people with different experiences but similar goals.

"Not only are you interacting still with your friends from the high school … you could meet people that are even older than you," he said.

"All the people that would be coming over here, they would be academically like-minded, and they'd each have a drive and a motivation to pursue higher academic interests," he said.