Double grad
Area youth earns YC, AWC diplomas simultaneously
Jose Carlos Macias didn’t have some grand scheme in mind for his life back in seventh grade when his then-teacher Jesus Arrizon encouraged him to take an algebra class offered by Arizona Western College.
So why take college-level algebra when he wasn’t even out of junior high?
“I just liked to learn new things,” the San Luis, Ariz., resident said. “I wanted to get a head start” on higher learning.
The following year, the student at Southwest Junior High School in San Luis took the next level algebra class from AWC, plus a college-level English class where he practiced organizing his thoughts into coherent essays.
Moving on to Yuma Catholic High School, he continued to take classes toward credits at AWC, thanks in large part to a dual enrollment partnership
between the high school and the college.
Flash forward to today: Macias has maintained a 3.9 grade point average and he’s about a month away from getting his high school diploma at Yuma Catholic’s graduation ceremony, at which he will be the speaker.
Oh, and he’ll also be getting his associate’s degree from AWC in May.
His first two years of college behind him, Macias, 18, plans to transfer in the fall as a junior at a fouryear university, where he’ll pursue a bachelor’s degree in engineering that, he hopes, will lead to a career in the emerging field of robotics.
“In seventh grade, I didn’t have any idea that I would come this far,” he said. He quickly figured out the college-level classes would demand a lot of time and effort from him.
“As soon as I began taking different exams and quizzes for my AWC courses, I knew I was going to be challenged. I persevered, knowing that all of the hard, extra work would pay off in the long run,” he said. “By taking these classes, I gained responsibility, learned how to work efficiently, and advanced in my studies.”
Macias has been accepted to Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus, and he says he has received a scholarship offer to attend Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. He’s also waiting to hear back on his application to attend the University of California at Berkeley.
“My plan is to go to a university that offers a robotics degree. Part of me wants to stay in (the) state, but part of me wants to go out of state,” Macias said.
He said he hopes to choose a university within a month.
“Jose Macias is a diligent young man,” Yuma Catholic Principal Rhett Stallworth said. “He is a student who uses his time wisely and takes advantage of all opportunities. He is a first-generation college student who values his education. Jose was able to complete 23 general education credits without ever leaving Yuma Catholic or extending his school day.”
“The other courses he took at AWC during the summer. This student really knew how to maximize his time in order to achieve his goal of earning his AA and graduate from high school within the same month.”
In the dual enrollment program, teachers at Yuma Catholic who have been certified by AWC teach advanced-level general education classes that apply as credit hours toward graduation at both institutions, said Stallworth.
“It’s kind of like killing two birds with one stone,” the principal said.
To be certified to teach dual enrollment classes, Yuma Catholic teachers must have master’s degrees in the subjects they teach and their transcripts are subject to review by the college, Stallworth added.
Macias is not the only student at Yuma Catholic taking dual enrollment classes. Since the beginning of the fall semester, students at that high school collectively have earned 555 credit hours transferable to a college or university, Stallworth said.
“He’s the only one who is going to graduate” in May from both institutions, Stallworth said, “but we have a lot of kids who are getting there.”
Macias said several educators played key roles in his efforts to gain his AWC degree ahead of schedule, starting with Arrizon, his math teacher in seventh grade who encouraged him to take the algebra class.
During that year at Southwest Junior High, he took the ACT college entrance exam to qualify for Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth, a summer academic program that enables gifted elementary and high school students to take university-level classes around the nation. Macias took part in the program for four summers, attending classes at Roger Williams, at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Penn State University and Seattle University.
He also credits Antonio Carrillo, an academic and career advisor at AWC, with helping him map out a schedule of college classes to earn the credits needed for the associate’s degree.
AWC math professor Reetika Dhawan, from whom he’s taking a calculus class, has been his favorite instructor “by far,” he said.
“She wants her students to learn. She gives up her time for us.”
And his parents, Juan Carlos Macias and Alicia Rangel, have provided encouragement from the time he took that first algebra class in seventh grade, he said.
“The first year, they were pushing me, but I also kind of wanted to do it.”
Macias, a member of National Junior Honor Society at Yuma Catholic High, said a number of fellow students want to take advantage of the dual enrollment program, given all the questions he’s gotten from them about how he achieved a high school diploma and AWC degree simultaneously.
“Just keep pushing forward, persevering, never quitting – that’s generally what I would tell them.”