BY NECO COCKBURN, OTTAWA CITIZEN
AUGUST 1, 2013

OTTAWA — For various reasons, students in a group studying at Algonquin College this summer were a credit or two short of graduating high school and didn't get their diplomas in June.

Michaela Eyre was missing one credit as a result of her health, she said. In and out of hospital for surgery and treatment related to central nervous system vasculitis — inflammation of blood vessel walls in the brain or spine — the South Carleton High School student said it "kind of caught up to me" by the time she reached Grade 12.

But through a new summer program offered by the college along with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and Ottawa Catholic School Board, Eyre is completing her high school requirements this week and is to receive a college credit to go along with it.

Eyre and a dozen other students in a new "school-within-a-college" program have had the opportunity to catch up on up to two high-school credits.

They're taught by a high school teacher in a classroom at the college, and also take a college course for a credit, something that sets it apart from typical summer school programs, said Kimya Keyhan, the college's manager of academic partnerships.

"We know there are students out there who for some reason or another have missed the opportunity to graduate in June, and a program like this gives them the opportunity to do that catch-up and be able to start their post-secondary studies sooner rather than later," Keyhan said.

The summer program at Algonquin allows students to "finish high school in time to start their fall classes if they've been accepted to college," she said, and they also get a leg up with the college credit on their transcript.

The school is a summer offering of a "dual-credit" program at the college that puts high school students through apprenticeship training and post-secondary courses and gives them credits toward their high school diploma and post-secondary education. It's funded through a partnership between Ontario's Ministry of Education and Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

In the 2012-2013 school year, more than 1,000 students went through the dual-credit program, which has been around since 2006 and is aimed primarily at students in Grade 11 and 12 who are deemed to be "at-risk" in high school.

The summer program, meanwhile, has 13 Grade 12 students who missed high school graduation by a credit or two for a variety of reasons, Keyhan said.

Among them is Cameron Russell, who spent most of his time in high school at Earl of March Secondary School. Russell, 18, said he fell in with the wrong crowd in Grade 10 and started "skipping a little bit too much" and procrastinating.

"Before the summer started, I was just behind. All my friends were graduating and stuff, looking forward to a good summer, and I wasn't," he said.

"Now, I still have a whole month — all of August — left, and I've graduated high school, and now am ahead of my friends even, because I have one college course under my belt."

A post-secondary education might be in his future, Russell said, but he expects to take some time off before then, and might go to Alberta to work in the oilsands.

Classes were held three days a week starting July 2. Students worked on high school courses in the morning and a college course on "college and career success" in the afternoon.

"The advantage is that transition to post-secondary. ... It gives them that sense of what post-secondary looks like," Keyhan said.

Eyre, 17, is going into nursing, and has been accepted at Algonquin College for this fall. The summer program has been a good experience, she said.

"It teaches me how they expect things to be in college, so I know the expectations, as well as getting ahead a little bit."

Students who successfully complete the program this week are gathering for a celebration on Thursday.

ncockburn@ottawacitizen.com
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