Haverhill High School

This fall, 19 Haverhill High School students will begin their sophomore year of high school and their first year of college.

These students were selected for an Early College Program which the high school is offering in partnership with Northern Essex Community College. The goal of this program is to raise college readiness skills and college completion rates.

Designed for students in the middle of the class academically, the program will feature three college courses—US History 1, American Literature 1, and College Success Seminar—which will be team taught at the high school during the regular school day by faculty from Northern Essex and a high school teacher.

The hope is that students who participate in the program will graduate from high school better prepared for college and will be more likely to attend college and graduate on time.

“We’re targeting students in the middle-of-the-pack academically,” says Sue Grolnic, Northern Essex’s dean of humanities and social sciences. “We looked for students who had the aptitude to succeed but hadn’t yet proven themselves academically. We want to raise the bar and help them realize that college is in their future.”

“The Early College program is a great opportunity for our students as it gives students them a boost of confidence to reach their fullest academic potential,” says Jacquie Vlahos Haverhill High’s Early College Coordinator. “The design and mission of the program ensures a team-based approach to teaching a rigorous, college level curriculum that challenges and encourages students to want to learn, work together, and have fun.”

The history and literature courses will satisfy the American Studies component that all high school sophomores are required to take and the College Success course will focus on how to study, how to be a self-directed student, and how read and write at the college level.
Students in the program will continue to take courses for college credit throughout high school education and will graduate from high school with up to 48 college credits which translates to a full year and a half of college.

“While we hope that Early College Program students will consider attending Northern Essex, the reality is that those credits they earned while in high school will transfer to other colleges and universities as well,” said Grolnic.

Haverhill’s Early College Program is modeled after a successful program which was launched at Amesbury High School in the fall of 2009.

For more information on the Haverhill High School/Northern Essex Community College Early College Program, contact Sue Grolnic at 978 556-3893 or sgrolnic@necc.mass.edu.