An exciting announcement has been made which can serve to jump start a brilliant future for Mansfield Senior students.
A partnership between Mansfield City Schools and North Central State College will allow students to earn an associate degree with their Senior High diploma – without leaving the high school and without incurring college debt.
It might sound too good to be true, but it is.
The program is Graduate Pathways to Success (GPS). Starting in the fall of 2018 it will use the College Credit Plus model for dual enrollment in both high school and college courses. “We have students who are ready for this challenge and who will succeed,” Superintendent Brian Garverick said. “This is a wonderful opportunity for them to secure two years of college credit debt free as they leave Senior High.”
The GPS program is aligned with in-demand careers which meet the needs of local employers. Mansfield City Schools and NC State will begin with a program to meet the growing need for qualified health care professionals and/or manufacturing.
Dr. Dorey Diab, president of NC State, said the goal is to enroll 25 freshmen for the fall of 2018. “These students will be the first in Mansfield to embark on their Graduate Pathway to Success,” Diab said. “Classes will remain at the high school. In the past we’ve operated at the Urban Center in downtown Mansfield. We’ve decided to take these classes to the students, instead of them coming to our center.”
Details are being worked out but the initial cohort of 25 students will have schedules as freshmen and sophomores which permit them to take both their Senior High core academic classes and NC State classes. Classes in the junior and senior years will earn dual credits. “At the time of their graduation GPS students will have met Ohio Department of Education diploma requirements and NC State associate degree requirements,” said Cheryl Carter, the college’s director of outreach.
North Central plans to recruit 25 students in each succeeding year while retaining at least 20 from year to year.
Carter will maintain an office at Senior High/Mansfield Middle School to work with school staff to identify middle school students who are ready for the GPS opportunity. She also will help students throughout Senior High to explore their higher education options.
Graduate Pathways to Success is rooted in two innovation grants awarded this summer by the Ohio Department of Education. One was given to Marion Technical College to continue collaboration with Marion City Schools; the second was awarded to Mansfield City Schools to partner more closely with NC State.
The GPS program here builds on a model Marion Technical College and Marion City Schools began in 2015.
Photo: Participating in the Graduate Pathways to Success announcement were, from left, Dorey Dian, president of North Central State College; Cheryl Carter, director of outreach for the college; Renda Cline, president of the Mansfield City Schools Board of Education; MCS Superintendent Brian Garverick and Robert McQuate, principal of Mansfield Middle School.
Source, Photo: Mansfield City Schools
