24 Summit students to graduate from PC today
Twenty-four Summit Collegiate High School students will be receiving their college degrees today at Porterville College’s Commencement Exercises — 20 days before they’re scheduled to graduate from high school.
The soon-to-be PC graduates met Thursday to try on their caps and gowns and to be photographed.
“I feel like a proud father,” said Summit’s vice principal Eric Anthony. “Especially to hear how hard they worked and now graduating from Porterville College.”
The school has had an approximate 22 students graduate from PC in the past nine years. But now, they have 24 in 2022 alone.
“We have slowly been raising the number of (dual high school and) college graduations. We’ve done a lot of outreach in the community, recruiting students here,” Anthony said. “It’s another opportunity we offer at Summit, and the numbers just flourished.”
Porterville College students travel to Summit to offer the college-level courses, Anthony said.
“Older students who drive also have the option to going to PC for the classes,” he said.
Among those graduating from PC today is 16 year old Jade Franco.
“I’m graduating as a junior,” Franco said. “I’ll be receiving my PC degree as a 16 year old, then my high school degree at 17.”
Franco said the opportunity to graduate early has changed her life in “a million ways.”
“It’s opened new doors and brought in what I envisioned in my life,” Franco said. “I’ll be attending Arizona State University for Biomedical Science and I will be practicing medicine at age 22.”
Other students all had similar stories.
ASB — associated student body — President Ruby Uribe, said she started taking college courses the fall semester of her freshman year. And after obtaining her Associate of Arts from Porterville College, and graduating from Summit on June 2, Uribe will attend Cal State Northridge and major in biology and radiology.
“It’s a sense of another accomplishment and I will finish faster,” she said.
She will also save on the cost of college, she said, and is taking advantage of the opportunity to what she will be in the future.
“I can go straight into my major,” she said.
Demaree, Demi, Lewis said she also started college classes as a freshman.
“I started with one or two college classes then after that, I became so determined,” Lewis said. “I started taking the maximum amount allowed, including summer courses and courses every semester, every year.”
But besides being
the ASB Vice President, she’s also the Senior Class President and she holds a part-time job.
“I’m also graduating and getting three
(college) degrees,” she said. “Obviously, I don’t have time for any kind of social life.”
And Ray Marenco, Summit’s ASB Spirit Crew Vice President, echoed his classmates, also saying he started collecting college
credits as a freshman.
“My parents encouraged me,” Marenco said. I started with taking two and then just continued with one per semester and I decided to keep going.”
Summit’s counselor Danielle Aguilar said the college-credits program continues to grow. Currently, she said, there’s a freshman cohort of 68 students — who in three more years, can also graduate from college before graduating from high school.