Ivy Tech hosts virtual celebration for early college high school program graduates
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — While the state of many area high school graduations was still being determined, Ivy Tech Community College Evansville held a virtual ceremony to honor 18 students graduating the Early College High School program.
The students joined Chancellor Daniela Vidal and other Ivy Tech administrators Thursday afternoon during the celebratory event that highlighted their accomplishments throughout their four years in the dual-program.
Along with speeches from Ivy Tech administrators, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. Superintendent David Smith and Governor Eric Holcomb acknowledged this year's graduating class.
"I think with doing what we could with a virtual environment, that it went really well," Student Kanin Bender said. "I'm happy we at least got some type of recognition that our families could come and watch.
"Although it wasn't ideal, it was definitely something that helped and made everybody feel better."
After attending Early College half-days and completing college-level courses, these students completed the Statewide General Education Transfer Core – or the “Start as a Sophomore” initiative. This program, headed by Director Wendy McNamara, allows graduating students to transfer their credits to another institution of higher learning in Indiana.
"Very proud of the great work McNamara is doing with the early college, the support from the EVSC and all our school principals," Vidal said. "I just think it's an amazing opportunity to have our high school students graduate with such great footing into their careers, and to be able to save up to two years into their higher ed goals."
Bender, who was named the Outstanding Graduate for the Early College program, credited much of his academic success to the initiative. Without the program, Bender said, he wouldn’t have been exposed to the number of career paths and resources he found at Ivy Tech.
After receiving 110 college credit hours and a slew of other accolades, he intends on using the skills and resources he’s obtained from Ivy Tech to continue his education at Indiana University-Bloomington this fall as a computer science major.
"I'm happy this establishes that I'm done with high school, that I've accomplished what I wanted to and that I can go on to a four-year university and continue to excel and achieve,” Bender said.