Teens can get college credits

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

The Carbon County Higher Education Center is the first Wyoming school to offer its pre-engineering high school students a chance to earn college credit through Project Lead the Way.

Project Lead the Way is a national organization that standardizes the program for participating schools. It is recognized by 35 universities across the country. Gail Parsons, the organization’s director of program quality, visited CCHEC on Monday to evaluate the school.

If the school fulfilled a set of guidelines, including proper curriculum, equipment and administration, it passed the test.

“You made it,” she said. Hearing this, John Larson, the program’s teacher, looked back at Parsons blankly, clearly exhausted from the rigorous in-class examination. “You made it,” she repeated.

Larson, vocational educator Dave Urasky and CCHEC Director Dave Throgmorton were all smiles when the news came out.

As a certified school, CCHEC’s students can opt to take an additional final examination upon completion of the course. If the student passes by at least 70 percent, they earn college credit. Any of the 35 affiliate schools will recognize the student’s work in Carbon County.

The program is different from the dual enrollment or concurrent enrollment currently offered by the higher education center. In these, students take a class understanding that their year-end mark will appear on their transcript.

Instead, Project Lead the Way’s program is akin to advanced placement courses because students can choose to take the exam at the end of their course. That score determines whether the student’s work is accepted at the college level.

“If they bomb the exam, it goes into the trash,” Larson said.

In order to teach Project Lead the Way curriculum, Larson must become certified in the course he wants to provide. That means his summer should be full of Project Lead the Way course work in order to add a third class — digital electronics — to his repertoire.

Parsons was impressed with CCHEC’s ability to become the first certified school in Wyoming, given the size of its community.

“It shows you don’t have to be urban to run the program,” Parsons said. She attributed much of the program’s success to the work and enthusiasm of Larson.

Becoming certified means Throgmorton and Urasky have room to let their ideas flourish. They plan to establish an advisory committee to guide the growth of the program. Middle and elementary school curriculum is available, and the CCHEC administrators hope to use it to jump start students’ interest in engineering and technology.

Parsons believed the program could attract women, too. “Draw them in by showing them they can make the world better,” she said. “The coolness of the design doesn’t always cut it for them.”

Throgmorton hopes it will open opportunities for the community to explore their interests in unusual ways. “If the students think it, they can do it,” he said. He referred to one student who is nearly finished with a full-sized electric guitar.