Keys to college: Brownsville Early College High School students to graduate with diploma, two years of college credit

There was a sense of coming home Thursday as BISD and The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College celebrated the opening of Brownsville Early College High School.

As educators applauded the school's first cohort of students, the Class of 2012, many also recalled their own days as students, some at Brownsville High School, others when it became Central Middle School.

"We sat in these same seats as students," Alma Garcia said as she stood in the auditorium she remembered from her high school days and where Thursday's ceremony took place.

Garcia graduated from BHS in 1974, part of the school's last graduating class before Hanna High School opened. She is a former BISD principal who now works as a program officer for early college high schools with the Communities Foundation of Texas and who was instrumental in getting BECHS off the ground.

The school is a collaborative venture by BISD and UTB-TSC funded through a $462,000 grant from the Texas High School Project, whose goal is to increase access to higher education by underserved and underrepresented students - of which educators agree there are many in Brownsville.

Classes began Aug. 25 at the Brownsville Independent School District's Clearwater Campus adjacent to what is now the district's Central Administration Building at 708 Palm Blvd., and was once Brownsville High School. Eventually the school will be on the UTB-TSC campus at the International Technology and Education Center.

"When they get out of here, they'll already be juniors in college," BISD Superintendent Hector Gonzales said of the school's first freshman class.

"They'll have a generational impact" because they'll be the first in their families to complete a college degree, meaning "their children and their children's children will go to college," he said.

BECHS has unusual entrance requirements: Enrollment is limited to students who would be the first in their family to complete a college degree. As well, BISD gave preference to students "who are not necessarily at the top of their class but have the desire to be successful," Gonzales said.

The school will add 100 freshman a year until it reaches 400 students and then stay that size. Many who spoke at the ceremony said they wish such opportunities had existed when they were students.

By taking dual-enrollment classes at UTB-TSC, students will graduate with as many as 60 semester hours of college credit and an associate of arts degree in addition to a high school diploma. BISD officials said the savings can amount to as much as $14,000 in tuition, fees and other costs.

The curriculum at BECHS is geared toward science, technology engineering and math, the STEM core curriculum, where the jobs of the future will come from, UTB-TSC President Juliet V. Garcia said.

She said virtually every dean and administrator at UTB-TSC "touched this project in some way," leading to its success.

John Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Texas High School Project and Communities Foundation of Texas said cooperation between BISD and UTB-TSC was evident.

"In most communities, K-12 education and higher education don't like each other," but that's not the case in Brownsville, he said.

The courses are more rigorous but BECHS is set up to meet the challenge, officials said.

At first, some of the students were worried about not being able to do the work, "but then they see their grades and it's ‘wow, these are pre-AP classes and I did that?'" counselor Jeannette Fennimore said.

Across the hall, Christiane Guevara and Melissa Millan said they are proud to be in the first class at BECHS and excited to be part of UTB-TSC.

Students are spending Fridays on campus and are already enrolled as dual-enrollment students, giving them the same access to university resources as regular UTB-TSC students. They will take most of their college coursework during their junior and senior years.

Raul Quintinilla and his wife Enedina have a daughter, Jeisel, at BECHS, who joins a brother and sister who are already students at UTB-TSC.

Going to college will impact the whole family and is changing the way the children see themselves, Enedina Quintinilla said.

Principal Roni Rentfro had this observation about the job ahead for students, teachers and staff: "It's an awesome task to go from high school freshman to college freshman in just two years."