Learn how high schools and colleges are teaming up to accelerate college careers. To get high school students more involved and interested in accelerated college programs.
Spring ISD student Johana Castillo, 15, didn’t think much about college as an eighth grader last year, and neither of her parents had received so much as a high school education. When her grandfather passed away ,her future prospects seemed even bleaker.
“I didn’t think I had a future, I thought, ‘I’m not gonna be anyone in life’,” Castillo said. “I just wanted to sit around and watch TV, I didn’t care about anything, because I was so close to my grandfather and then he was gone.”
All that changed, however, when Castillo was accepted into Spring ISD’s brand new Early College Academy at Southridge. The school, a partnership between Spring ISD and Lone Star College-North Harris, gives students the opportunity to enroll in dual-credit courses as well as college classes at North Harris, so that students earn a high school diploma as well as an Associate of Arts degree when they graduate.
Accelerated Degree Programs 