Nearly 200 students and families attended a meeting and filled out applications at Wayne County Community College's Downriver campus yesterday in preparation for a unique partnership between the college and the Taylor School District that is scheduled to kick off in the fall.
One hundred and 16 student juniors-to-be from Kennedy High School and another 72 from Truman attended the event, which was held in the Ray Mix Building on the Taylor college campus.
This will be the first year for the program, which offers classes and college credits to students who are attending Taylor schools. Students, beginning as sophomores, will be able to take part in the program, which offers eight specific college courses starting in the fall of this year.
The courses are paid by the TSD. The only financial obligation to the students and their families are the cost of textbooks. The school district will pay for the classes and fees, which is a savings of $368 per class per student, or $2,944 for all eight classes over the two-year period.
The partnership involves taking two college courses each semester at WCCC. In the plan, the courses would take place after third hour in the high schools. Participating students would eat lunch and then be bussed to the college campus. The college courses would end at 2:30 p.m., and which time the students would be dismissed for the day. While the students will be bussed to the campus, families will have to provide their own way home after the day is over.
The advantages of the program are many. The college courses would apply to the student's high school transcript and be counted for high school graduation. The credits would apply to about 70 colleges and universities in Michigan, including the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint), MSU, CMU, EMU, WMU and Grand Valley State and Oakland.
Courses required for successful applicants are speech, two English courses, psychology, American government, sociology, visual arts, and biology. All are worth three credits each, except for biology, which is worth four.
In essence, this amounts to a "one-year scholarship" for those TSD students participating in the program. If successful, they will earn 25 college credits enter college after their high school graduation with a sophomore standing. This eliminates an entire year of college and saves students and their families a lot of money.
A key feature of the program involves keeping the Taylor students together during this partnership. They will not be mixed in with regular college students. Instead, they will attend classes together and travel together.
If you have any questions about the program, call the TSD at (734) 374-1200.
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