JSCC partners with several local high schools for Middle College program
JACKSON, Tenn. — Starting this fall, Jackson State Community College will be expanding its Middle College offerings.
Middle College is a full-time program where students receive an associates degree, further reducing their time spent at a four-year institution.
“The future of the United States is moving towards some kind of middle college, early college programming,” said Seth Harden, Assistant Vice President of JSCC Enrollment Management. “It’s really big in a lot of states now. So, we’re wanting to scale it, kind of follow that trend, and just make sure that students know about it as best as possible.”
17 West Tennessee high schools have partnered with JSCC, including Bolivar Central, Chester County High, Jackson Central, Lexington High, Peabody, and more.
The Jackson-Madison County School System has set aside a fund for their students to cover any additional program costs.
“So, the state has a middle college scholarship that pays for those 12 credit hours starting in your junior year,” said Harden. “And then if you’re not starting in your junior year or you don’t want to do the full 12 credit hours, there’s what’s called the dual enrollment grant, and it pays for the tuition of those courses, and then, book costs vary, but they would have to pay that.”
Students enrolled in the program with be full-time at their high school and Jackson State, which can cause a scheduling conflict. Harden shares more on how they resolve this issue.
“We really work closely with those high school counselors to ensure that it doesn’t, so we make sure that we’re not overlapping classes,” Harden said. “We try to make sure that those high schools are gonna count English Comp 1 for their junior English, as one example. So we try to work hard to make sure that that does not happen.”
Middle college graduates get the honor of walking the stage at JSCC’s graduation with a special honorary cord.
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