HONOKAA — When Honokaa High School senior Azure Tolentino graduates in the spring, she’ll already have a handful of college credits under her belt.
HONOKAA — When Honokaa High School senior Azure Tolentino graduates in the spring, she’ll already have a handful of college credits under her belt.
Tolentino is one of 17 students enrolled in Honokaa’s new virtual learning, dual college credit program offered through Hawaii Pacific University, an Oahu-based private university.
The program started this school year. Students enrolled in its inaugural English 100 course earn high school and college credit. They receive instruction remotely from an HPU faculty member via a web-conferencing system.
“The things we learn are way different than high school,” said Tolentino, 16, who wants to attend college in-state next year and study education. “In a college course, you kind of speak adult terms, and everything you learn is all college (level). It makes me feel like I’m not a freshman anymore. I feel like I’m 20 or something. I feel like it’s going to give me a lot more opportunities.”
HPU offers its dual credit program at several schools on Oahu. Honokaa High marks its debut on a neighbor island. HPU says it expanded the program to Honokaa to fill a need: The high school’s current dual college credit options are limited, partly because of its rural location.
The high school eventually wants every student to graduate with some amount of college credit.
Research indicates students who earn college credit while in high school have a greater chance of attending and persisting in college.
Honokaa administrators said Friday about one-fourth of Honokaa students graduate with college credit and about 50 percent attend college immediately after high school.
“We saw a need, and we learned they did not have a program this year, so we said that we’d be happy to step in and provide it,” HPU President John Gotanda said Friday before a brief ceremony at the school to celebrate the program’s debut.
“Because we see this as a real important part of the effort to get kids to go to college. So we want to be part of that effort and help encourage them.”
Honokaa administrators said they want to expand the dual credit program in the future by adding more courses and encouraging more students to participate.
HPU also wants to eventually expand it to more neighbor island high schools.
The Honokaa dual credit program was launched with funding from a donor.
It’s free of charge to students who participate.
“It helps them, obviously, with getting their basic general education requirements out of the way, but it also serves as that foot in the right direction,” said Honokaa vice principal Angie Hewins.
“It just opens the door for them, and they don’t see that roadblock as soon as they graduate. They already know that they’re on the path and they’re on the way, and they’re more likely to go and pursue a four-year college and get out there. So it definitely helps.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.