Principal Rene Garganta is preparing for the big day when the first graduating class of the Early College Academy at Southridge will receive their diplomas.
Principal Rene Garganta is preparing for the big day when the first graduating class of the Early College Academy at Southridge will receive their diplomas.
The pioneering students will march across the stage at noon on Saturday at the Berry Center, 8877 Barker Cypress.
“I’m just filled with pride,” Garganta said. “This class is special in so many ways. They’ll be a great example to the students who come after them.”
He noted that the high school seniors took a chance enrolling in a school that was just in its infancy, with no predecessors to lead the way.
“They were going on faith,” he said. “They didn’t know about being a high school student, let alone a college student. They’ve overcome quite a bit. They stumbled, picked themselves and kept going.”
There will be 71 students earning their high school diplomas — and 28 graduating with an associate degree. More than 45 percent of the class has earned 42 hours that can be applied to a bachelor’s degree.
“Even if you don’t get an associate degree, and you’re leaving with 40 hours of college credit, that’s a big victory,” Garganta said. “That’s something to make you hold your head up.”
Early College Academy is unlike traditional high schools in a number of ways.
“The level of personal relationships and commitment to one another is significantly different,” he said. “We have a small school, with students and faculty all working on the same goal, college readiness.”
It’s more of a hybrid between a high school and a college. The instructors are either Spring Independent School District employees with the credentials required to teach a college course — or professors from Lone Star College who come to the high school campus.
Eventually, students from the Early College Academy at Southridge take courses at the Lone Star College campus.
They can begin earning college credit the spring semester of their freshman year. The first semester, they take courses designed to build the necessary study skills and techniques for getting organized.
Garganta said the goal is simply “that students are getting the best education possible and as much college credit as possible and that they transition successfully to a four-year college.”
He said that students learn how to prioritize, stay organized and advocate for themselves. “It’s a very interactive school, where the kids have a voice,” he said. “We try to give them as much freedom and responsibility as possible. We want to support instead of control.”
The district opened Early College during the 201112 school year through a partnership with Lone Star College-North Harris to give students the opportunity to earn a high school diploma and an associate degree — or up to 60 hours toward a bachelor’s degree.
Garganta became principal at the school in 2012, the summer after the freshmen year for the graduating class.
Students may apply in the spring of their eighthgrade year. “We’re looking for students who do not necessarily get the best grades or have the best attendance,” Garganta said. “They don’t have to be perfect. The key is that they want to do better.”
Valedictorian Lenzie Russell, 18, said her mother persuaded her to try the school out.
“I was worried about coming, because I didn’t have friends there,” she said. “But my mother reminded me that the opportunity to get an associate’s degree for free was something that I couldn’t pass up.”
Russell said the first few weeks helped assuage her fears. “It was really like being in a large family from the beginning,” she said. “It was challenging at first. It was definitely different, but it was exciting to meet those challenges.”