HGCC opens new toddler room
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: News
By Chris Henkel
EP Staff Reporter
An overall average 3.69 GPA, a program with 113 students and a positive response from parents are results following the first semester of the Early College High School program at Midland College, according to Jeanette LaBouff, ECHS principal.
The ECHS program allows high school students a view of college life and the higher levels of expectation, LaBouff said.
The process begins in the eighth grade and includes filling out an application and going through an interview along with their parents. If students are accepted, they start their high school freshman year at college and stay in the program until they graduate high school.
ECHS does not offer any athletic or fine arts extra-curricular activities but does have academic competitions for the students. Although the students in the program sacrifice athletic and fine-arts classes, there is an upside, LaBouff said. ECHS students are given the opportunity to receive both a high school diploma and an associate's degree.
LaBouff said she is proud of 30 of her students who recently competed in a YMCA sponsored "Youth in Government" competition. Three of the 30 qualified for nationals in North Carolina.
"Although we do not have any extra-curricular activities for the students, we do have academic competitions that they are performing in and they are doing great," she said.
Besides doing well in competition, the students are doing well in the classroom, according to LaBouff. Because the students give up the option of athletics, the environment in the classroom is geared directly to learning and studying. With that type of environment, ECHS students averaged a 3.69 GPA in their first semester.
LaBouff said teachers are also adjusting to the ECHS concept. "I think they enjoy it. We don't have bells; we don't have lockers slamming; and we have had no fights or cussing. Not that those things characterize high school, but there is just a different feel in this environment."
EP Staff Reporter
An overall average 3.69 GPA, a program with 113 students and a positive response from parents are results following the first semester of the Early College High School program at Midland College, according to Jeanette LaBouff, ECHS principal.
The ECHS program allows high school students a view of college life and the higher levels of expectation, LaBouff said.
The process begins in the eighth grade and includes filling out an application and going through an interview along with their parents. If students are accepted, they start their high school freshman year at college and stay in the program until they graduate high school.
ECHS does not offer any athletic or fine arts extra-curricular activities but does have academic competitions for the students. Although the students in the program sacrifice athletic and fine-arts classes, there is an upside, LaBouff said. ECHS students are given the opportunity to receive both a high school diploma and an associate's degree.
LaBouff said she is proud of 30 of her students who recently competed in a YMCA sponsored "Youth in Government" competition. Three of the 30 qualified for nationals in North Carolina.
"Although we do not have any extra-curricular activities for the students, we do have academic competitions that they are performing in and they are doing great," she said.
Besides doing well in competition, the students are doing well in the classroom, according to LaBouff. Because the students give up the option of athletics, the environment in the classroom is geared directly to learning and studying. With that type of environment, ECHS students averaged a 3.69 GPA in their first semester.
LaBouff said teachers are also adjusting to the ECHS concept. "I think they enjoy it. We don't have bells; we don't have lockers slamming; and we have had no fights or cussing. Not that those things characterize high school, but there is just a different feel in this environment."
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