These Philadelphia Teens Have Earned Associate Degrees Ahead Of Graduating High School – AfroTech
These Philly teenagers have earned college degrees before graduating from high school.
Channel 6 Action News reports that Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School in Pennsylvania has a dual-enrollment partnership with the Community College of Philadelphia that has enabled the school to achieve this feat. The program’s purpose is to support “highly motivated students pursuing an accelerated path to higher education,” per its program manual. The opportunity also ensures that underserved youth face fewer financial barriers to pursuing that goal, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Part of the program’s first class, Dylan Adkins, Khalif Barakat-Cooper, Marquise Floyd-Reid, Aidan Marion, and Jeremiah Roach earned college credits from the Community College of Philadelphia while in high school. Courses they enrolled in included physics, art history, intro to robotics, and survey of criminal justice, among others.
“I knew that it was going to be an academic challenge, definitely converting from taking high school classes to now taking college classes,” Adkins told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “But I thought that having people knowing that they could trust me, know that I was going to pass all my classes, that was worth it.”
Roach commented, per the outlet:
“At first, I’m not going to lie, I didn’t really want to do it. I was already included in a lot of stuff — football and sports. I thought, that will make it even harder.”
“It felt a little weird,” he later added. “I was in class with 30-year-olds, 40-year-olds.”
Roach ultimately stayed the course after being encouraged to join the program by Zach Paris, the school’s director of early college and career programming, and his mother, per The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Barakat-Cooper earned CCP’s highest honor, while Floyd-Reid, Roach, and Marion graduated summa cum laude, according to the outlet.
Next, they will walk the stage at Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School to receive their high school diplomas. They are among the top of the charter school’s class, with Marion being second, Adkins third, Barakat-Cooper eighth, Floyd-Reid 11th, and Roach 12th, per The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“These five young men aren’t exceptions. They’re our evidence,” William Hayes, CEO of Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School, said.
Looking ahead, Marion plans to attend Norfolk State University, Adkins will attend Winston-Salem State University, Roach heads to Delaware Valley University, and Barakat-Cooper will go to Temple University.
