CMC Concurrent Enrollment program helps CMC Edwards grad save thousands and earn prestigous master’s scholarship
When Keegan Hammond was four years old, her mom gave her several Barbies one day in an effort to encourage her interest in dolls. Checking in on Keegan later that afternoon, she discovered her daughter surrounded by a pile of dismembered Barbie limbs strewn about the play room. “I need to know how they work,” said her daughter, calmly explaining the anatomical disassembling.
Few anecdotes are likely more telling about the future life path the young Hammond would take. Spurred on by an intense intellect and a passionate curiosity about the inner workings of all things, Keegan walked into her first college class at Colorado Mountain College at age 14, after receiving special permission from Edwards Campus Vice President Peggy Curry. Several years later, she graduated with an Associate of Science degree in Chemistry from Colorado Mountain College – several weeks before graduating from high school.
Getting Ahead through Concurrent Enrollment
Hammond was able to earn a full associates degree at the same time she graduated from high school thanks to Colorado Mountain College’s CEPA, or Concurrent Enrollment, program. Concurrent Enrollment classes are taught in local high schools, in Colorado Mountain College classrooms, and via distance education to qualified regional high school students, allowing them to simultaneously earn college or vocational credit towards a post-secondary certificate or degree at a Colorado college that also counts as credit towards a high school diploma. Tuition for concurrent enrollment courses is paid for by the high school student’s local school district.
Early Work Pays Off
Hammond graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in May, 2012, with the highest GPA of anyone in her academic specialty of Extractive Metallurgy. The accomplishment earned her the Hazen Research Outstanding Senior Award. She also earned a coveted spot in the School of Mine’s prestigious graduate program, funded by a full scholarship from the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy. Hammond’s scholarship covers the full costs of her tuition, fees, books, health insurance and research (including travel), plus a generous monthly living stipend.
Keegan and her mother, Lisa Hammond, both believe that the college credit Keegan earned through CMC’s Concurrent Enrollment program is a part of the reason she earned her prestigious graduate scholarship. Most students at Mines must take heavy academic loads loads in order to get through the school’s undergraduate program in five years or less. In contrast, when Keegan started at Colorado School of Mines, she brought nearly 60 college credits with her due to the classes she took through the concurrent enrollment program, putting her three to four semesters ahead of her peers. The family estimates this saved nearly fifty thousand dollars in tuition, fees, and living expenses for Keegan’s undergraduate degree. Keegan herself estimates that some her classmates at the School of Mines have upwards of $150,000 worth of debt when they graduate. “It’s going to take them years to pay it off.”
Those same credits also allowed Keegan to literally lighten each semester’s academic load – while still graduating in less time than it took most of her classmates. This helped her excel in the courses she was enrolled in.
“To be able to save all the money was one thing, but to be able to take the pressure off the huge loads most students at Mines experience was also a huge benefit. Because Keegan came in with so many credits as a freshman, it helped her to do quite well in all her classes, “ says Lisa, who has become a fervent booster of CMC’s concurrent enrollment program and is constantly working to educate other parents about the benefits of the program.
The ability to save money on Keegan’s college education was a huge incentive for the family to support Keegan through the hard work of a full slate of concurrent enrollment classes. Sums up Lisa, about the benefits of concurrent enrollment: “To know ahead of time what we would be able to save for Keegan’s education, that savings was all the difference for us.”
Story and photo by Kate Lapides, Marketing Editor at Colorado Mountain College.