College program expands to GCIT

DEPTFORD High school students at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology will be able to enroll at nearby Gloucester County community college in their senior year under an agreement signed last week 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 in 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," GCIT Superintendent Michael C. Dicken said at the signing ceremony.

Students in the program will pay discounted tuition and fees. 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 earned about 30 credits by graduation, he said. The senior-year program would have gotten him an associate's degree, or close to it.

"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.

- Jonathan Lai