51 Doors to College, Opened in High School

On a perfect, sunny fall day seniors in The Environment and Humanity class are collecting college credits along with water samples and science skills. The course is one of 51 offered at Spring Lake Park High School with opportunities for college credit - saving students time and money and preparing them for their lives after high school.

Students stand ready at the canoe launch. They have their empty bottles and are prepared to collect water samples from Valentine Lake. They will analyze the water in a lab later in the week. On this day, they are also doing an orienteering lab through the wooded Bethel University campus. They’ll fit in a short college tour before they head back to the high school.

Jarrod Klopp, science teacher at the high school, is herding students into groups and getting them set up for the labs. He is teaching four sections of this year-long embedded college course. In addition to three high school credits, students will receive four college credits through Bethel University. Three credits are for content, and one credit is for lab experiences.

Embedded college courses provide credits through a specific school – like Anoka-Ramsey Community College, University of Minnesota, Bethel University and others. Other options for college credit include articulation agreements and Advanced Placement courses. All are available to students free of cost and without leaving the support of the high school environment.

Articulated credits are college credits students may receive through the successful completion of their course aligned to a specific career and technical education program. Many health and human services credits are available this way, like for Emergency Medical Technician. Advanced Placement (AP) courses provide credit based on AP exam scores and are the most transferrable college credits.

In the most recent graduating class, 83 percent of graduates earned at least one college credit during their Spring Lake Park High School experience. Nearly half of the class earned 12 or more college credits – the equivalent of a semester of college.

“It's almost kind of hard to get out of Spring Lake Park High School without college credit,” says Jen Blaido, counselor for personalized learning and career and college planning.

Credit for any post-secondary plan

The variety of different types of college credits provide a lot of opportunities for students.

“Each option may fit students’ needs differently,” says Jen. “The rigor definitely changes with different options and students tailor what they pick to their goals and plans that are developing for college after high school.”

The students lining up to enter Lake Valentine have a variety of canoe skills and many different reasons for being in the course.

Alysha Hargreaves is interested in studying psychology and criminology and hopes to do so at Concordia in St. Paul. She's hoping the college credit will transfer. She's also taken Child Development II for college credit, which aligns with her psychology interest, and Modern World Civilizations. 

Alysha shares a canoe with friend, Annika Johnson. Annika is interested in environmental science as a long-term plan and hopes to study at Minnesota North College in Ely next year. She aspires to work in the National Park Service one day

I'm hoping to get experience in this class that will help me next year," she says. “I imagine I’ll be doing a lot of similar things.”

Olivia Persons and Ellis Rotzenberg have both taken Spanish and Pre-calc for college credit before this course. Olivia is interested in physical therapy. Ellis is interested in something related to business marketing.

"I've taken rigorous classes to help get ready for college, so I know what to expect," says Ellis.

From her counseling chair, Jen sees firsthand how students are able to craft a path after high school based on their goals.

“All of our opportunities allow students to build their resume to get into colleges of their choice if they take advantage of the opportunities,” says Jen. “A lot of kids have been really smart with how they are earning credits and having them transfer. Many finish an associate’s degree before they even get to college.”

Ready for rigor, saving time and money

Jacob Brunsvold, who teaches College Algebra at Spring Lake Park High School with college credit through Anoka-Ramsey Community College, sees advantages to taking college courses within a high school environment.

“This is a great opportunity for students to earn some college credit without having to leave the high school for a PSEO-type experience,” he says. “I think this helps a lot of students transition into the rigor – and lack of scaffolding and support – that’s in a typical college course.”

Kristine Putz teaches College Writing and Critical Reading and College Film Studies. Both courses offer college credit through Anoka-Ramsey Community College.

“These opportunities provide students with rigorous courses that prepare them better for the post-secondary world. I'm excited to watch the growth of students and their work over the course of the year,” says Kristine. “I have several students who take College Writing as juniors and my College Film studies class as seniors. Their growth is especially evident.”

World language is an area where students can earn college credit and perhaps fulfill college language requirements and free them up to double-major, study abroad or take on internships. The high school offers several college level Spanish and German courses.

“These opportunities give students a significant head start on college, both in terms of credits earned and academic skills. Students often share that these courses gave them confidence walking into college classes—they feel prepared, not intimidated, by university-level expectations,” says Kyle Lawton, Spanish teacher and world language lead.

Kyle has seen other powerful impacts from the college Spanish offerings and specifically with Hispanic students for whom Spanish is their heritage language.

“Walking them through the enrollment process, explaining why the class carries college credit, and seeing their excitement when they realize they are truly earning college-level credits has been transformative,” says Kyle. “For many, it’s the eye-opening experience of officially becoming college students—sometimes as the first in their families to do so.”

For our English Language Learners and New-to-Country students especially, college credit opportunities validate their bilingual skills and build confidence and pride. Kyle has also observed how it narrows opportunity gaps and expands students’ visions of what’s possible for their academic futures.

There are also the practical aspects – like getting out of classes you don’t want to take in college and saving money.

“Students that have received credit from the class have come back and said they were able to save money in college and were not required to take an additional lab course if they were not actively pursuing science in college because of the credit they received in this course,” says Jarrod.

Jenn Prince teaches several Language Arts courses for college credit.  

“In general, I think it's cool that kids have so many options for different types of college credit in our department alone - Humanities, college writing, AP writing, AP lit,” says Jenn. “Kids have mentioned how helpful it is to not have to pay for those credits - saving a lot of money.”

Connecting to careers

Often the courses with college credit are also connecting students with potential career paths. Sometimes, students discover a career path they want to follow. Other times, the opposite happens, and students realize a path they thought they wanted isn’t for them.

Mel Tuve teaches child development and teacher education courses for college credit. This year, she has a couple students working at Spanish Immersion and another student who is passionate about Special Education. She’s looking forward to their student experiences in the classroom.

“These experiences are so important because students are able to explore careers that they are interested in,” says Mel. “They get hands-on experience and grow their confidence.”

Many of Mel’s students have shared that Teacher Education is their favorite class and that they learned so much about themselves and others.

“They gain so much insight into other people's perspective and experiences,” says Mel. “Several students have come back to the district and are paraprofessionals or work in our daycare after school as they go to college. A couple are doing their student teaching and hope to become teachers in our district.” 

Jenn often has students in her college-level Language Arts classes who aren’t interested at all in a career path related to English or communications. She enjoys watching them discover connections between what they learn in her class and what they want to do.

“Students have a big research project, and they get to talk to people working in communications in the fields they are interested in,” she says. “They might want to go into healthcare, psychology, science, and they discover they are going to have to use these skills in those fields.”

Some students discover a path they previously hadn’t even considered while taking college-level Spanish to fulfill a requirement.

“I’ve seen students discover a passion for Spanish literature, film, or cultural studies that led them to careers in education, international business, and healthcare,” says Kyle.

Keeping up, staying relevant

The challenge with career and college-relevant courses is keeping up with the skills and experiences that will help students be ready for what comes next. That’s one reason Spring Lake Park Schools’ Career and College Pathways are under study this year. Making sure the pathways continue to evolve with industry trends, technology advancements and workforce demands is critical.

Martin Lohman teaches computer science courses – several for college credit – and has watched as the field has changed quickly.

"Computer Science is in a weird place because it's a little overly saturated in the job market," says Martin. "It used to be that you just knew you wanted to be a coder who writes code all the time. But, that is all changing.”

Right now, Martin watches students dabble in computer science courses, but then not really know where to go. Intermediate and advanced computer science courses are year-long electives which is hard to fit into a schedule. They are also geared toward specific skills that may not be as relevant as they once were.

A next step is to look at those year-long options and work toward developing 1-2 trimester courses to provide more options for students. He's also looking at content and trends in the industry - exploring AI, networking, cybersecurity and maybe some overlap with the high school’s newer Mechatronics course.

"Ten years ago, it was all about writing code. Now it's like, I could go be a drone operator. I could be writing scripts to survey land. It’s more logic oriented,” says Martin. “We're looking at our courses and developing a sequence. For students interested in STEM, taking a couple of trimester-long courses and a year-long course would give them an idea of where they might want to go in STEM."

For senior Mia Swinarski, those AP Computer Science and AP Calculus experiences have been the most helpful.

“They expose me to college-level coursework which makes me feel very prepared to take on a full college course load next year,” says Mia. “Additionally, AP Computer Science has given me a way to explore career opportunities that I would’ve never been exposed to otherwise.”

When Mia graduates in the spring, she will have taken nine AP courses. She’s also taken embedded college courses in Spanish, physics, Modern World Civilizations, and pre-calc.

I think these courses are invaluable in helping to figure out my future career, preparing me for college-level courses, and offsetting the cost of college. SLP provides opportunities in so many different fields so that we can find what we enjoy the best and plan for the future from there. Mia Swinarski, senior