Sinclair Community College Recognizes 84 High School Students Completing Their Associate Degrees

A special ceremony was held at Sinclair’s Great Hall on Thursday, April 16^th recognizing the 84 College Credit Plus (CCP) students completing their Sinclair Community College associate degrees while still in high school. These 84 CCP students graduated with a total of 85 associate degrees before graduating high school. One (1) student graduated with a double degree.

CCP is Ohio’s dual-enrollment program, giving students in grades 7-12 the opportunity to take college courses for free and earn high school and college credit before graduating high school. This marks Sinclair’s 11^th record-breaking year of CCP, as the college has surpassed 12,000 CCP students, exceeding 100% growth over eleven (11) years.

12 Juniors and 73 Seniors graduated from Sinclair this year with an associate degree. 11 CCP students graduated this year have a perfect 4.0 GPA. By completing a degree in high school, these students, and their families, saved over $1 million towards the future cost of a college credential.

“This celebration represents one of the key goals of CCP and Sinclair,” said Teresa Hernandez, Director of College Credit Plus at Sinclair. “The key goal being to help more students gain more education for less money.”

CCP provides high school students with the option to choose from a wide range of courses and programs in both a career and technical field of study that prepares them for in-demand jobs, as well as general education courses that can be transferred to a four-year university. The ability for students to complete an associate degree while in high school requires strong partnerships between Sinclair College and area high schools. Sinclair has agreements with 142 individual high schools across the region.

15 different degree programs were represented within this year’s cohort of graduates. The top programs included Aviation Maintenance Technology, Business Management, Electromechanical Engineering Technology, Associate of Science for Transfer, Arts, Political Science, and Psychology.

The students who graduated represent 33 partner high schools with 21 high schools having courses running in their building with Sinclair faculty or credentialed high school teachers.

Butler Tech D. Russel Lee had 17 students graduate from the Electromechanical Engineering Technology Program, while Miami Vally CTC had 11 students graduate from the Aviation Maintenance Technology, Service Technology, or Associate of Science/Arts for Transfer degree.

Elyana Eljawad, Bethel High School, graduated with a double degree in Psychology and Liberal Arts.

A 200-person audience was in attendance for Sinclair’s CCP Graduation Celebration consisting of students, their families, high school and Sinclair administrators, Deans, and school partnership staff. Sinclair President and CEO, Dr. Steve Johnson, spoke to the students and their families at the event, as well as one of the current CCP graduates and a Sinclair CCP alumnus.

Visit Sinclair’s College Credit Plus Webpage for more information.