Seniors earn their associate degrees while in high school
Jessica Gobel and Alina Hendrix, seniors at Mountain Pine High School, and Jordan Lyle, a senior at Lakeside High School, obtained their high school diplomas while earning their associate degrees from National Park College.
All three students attended NPC through concurrent credit offerings through their high school, which provided them with the experience of college and a jump-start on their secondary education.
“It feels so amazing because not only am I getting my degree so early, but I’m also the first in my immediate family to graduate from college,” Hendrix said. “It feels like a victory for my whole family.”
“I felt the same excitement at my high school graduation,” Lyle said.
“The environment at NPC was great and I was able to learn a lot,” Gobel said in a news release. “It gave me the ability to really figure out what path I wanted to take for my future.”
According to the release, Gobel became interested in the medical lab technician program and hopes to use her degree not only to serve her community but to fulfill her passion for helping others.
Hendrix said she decided to go this route because she studied hard in school, noting that seniors sometimes hardly do any work their senior year.
“I might as well push through my senior year, go ahead and get my degree. So that way, I’m a foot ahead of everybody else, once I start college and get my bachelor’s degree,” she said.
Lyle said he was able to get his high school and associate degree at the same time because Lakeside offers the legacy program where students can take college courses while still in high school.
“I was able to just have the same high school experience as everyone else. Eat lunch with my friends and take online classes through National Park College,” he said.
Lyle credits his success to his counselors at Lakeside and Connie Poteet, high school concurrent coordinator/concurrent enrollment coordinator at NPC.
“They helped organize what I was going to take and how I was going to achieve this associate degree. I also want to give credit to the teachers at National Park and Lakeside be
cause they all helped me very greatly with my core subjects,” Lyle said.
Education is important because it allows you to have a better chance of getting a job, he said.
Hendrix decided to go into media and broadcasting because she wants to be a radio or TV show host, she said.
“I love to talk and I love leaving an impression on other people. So by going into this career, I want to leave and have a positive light on other people’s lives and inform them of the things that they need to know. There’s so much fake news in our world today,” Hendrix said, noting she chose Arkansas State University in Jonesboro because it has a good media and broadcasting program.
“Not only is it in a place where there’s a lot of job opportunities, but it’s also close to Memphis, Tenn., which is known for their radio and broadcasting,” Hendrix said.
For any student who wants to go the same route she went, Hendrix said her advice is to never believe they are not smart enough or that they can’t do it.
“All it takes is hard work and a little bit of effort and not only does it put you ahead of everyone else, but it also gives yourself a feeling of accomplishment and achievement,” she said.
Lyle chose the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville to obtain his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.
Lyle said his advice to students wanting to obtain a college degree while still in high school is to talk to their counselors, see what they need to take and what they need to do in order to work toward their goal.
“I really enjoyed my experience at Lakeside, and I’m really glad that I got to go to this school because this school offers so many opportunities for students than many of the other schools that I’ve been to,” he said.