The Opportunity Students Have with College and Career Promise

On Monday, March 20, a meeting was held at Bunker Hill High School inviting parents of rising juniors, seniors, and sophomores for the purpose of hearing more about the College and Career Promise Program that exists in partnership with Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC).

As a parent, I am excited about the opportunities that programs such as this can provide for my own child as well as the opportunities that it provides for every child in our community.  As an adult, I must admit that I am a little envious of these opportunities and can't help but think about a time when I was in school, wishing that I would have had some of the same opportunities.  I simply cannot stress the impact that this program has on helping students get a jump on both college and career and provides the gift of financial rewards to families as they prepare to pay for education beyond high school.

This year at Bunker Hill, we started our first blended cohort of juniors and seniors in the College and Career Promise Program with CVCC.  The program works by having community college professors come to the high school and teach college classes.  Students that qualify for the program are duly enrolled students with Bunker Hill and Catawba Valley Community College.  What does this mean?  It means that students get both high school and college credit at the same time.  It also means that students that start in the program as juniors can earn a minimum of 25 college credit hours that will transfer to all of the University of North Carolina Colleges/Universities as well as many of the private colleges across North Carolina.  If you are more motivated than this as a student and couple these credits with a sprinkling of Advanced Placement (AP) Courses and be willing to take an online class or two throughout high school, it is entirely possible for students to leave the traditional high school and enter college well into their sophomore year.

Opportunities such as this translate into thousands of dollars worth of savings for families and provide direct evidence to colleges and universities that students are more than prepared to enter the college arena and be successful.  The purpose of this blog today is to inform more of our parents in our immediate school community of these opportunities in the hopes that we have more students sign up for these courses and prepare themselves to be ready for such opportunities before getting to their junior year in high school.  Also, it is about ensuring that we are continuing to provide information about how college can be affordable.  We are blitzed by the message that students and families are consumed with college debt.  There is no doubt that this happens. However, there is also the opportunity to avoid debt by taking advantage of programs such as this.

This week, our Student Services Department wrapped up the first phase of registration for classes for the upcoming school year.  As a principal, and as counselors, we want to get the scheduling process right, and we want students and parents to register for choices that are both beneficial and exciting so that we meet our customer expectations and build transcripts that help students be successful for both college and career futures.  As we move beyond this week, I want to encourage students and parents to continue to explore the opportunities around the College and Career Promise Program and push us as a high school to continue to seek out and offer more advanced opportunities.  This is how we will continue to improve and make sure we are preparing students for the success in both the present and future.

For more information about CCP, contact the Bunker Hill High School Student Services Department at (828) 241-3355.

Written by:

Dr. Jeff Isenhour  @JeffIsenhour

Bunker Hill High School Principal

Contact Dr. Isenhour on Twitter @JeffIsenhour

Contact Dr. Isenhour by email Jeffrey_Isenhour@catawbaschools.net