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Presentation College Joins Rising Scholars Program: Tuition for High School Students Will Be Same As at Northern State

Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Russ Keen, American News, Aberdeen, S.D.

Jan. 11--Aberdeen Central High School students who qualify may take classes at Presentation College starting this fall for college credit due to an expansion of the Rising Scholars program.

The Aberdeen school district and Northern State University launched Rising Scholars last fall. Six Central students took classes at NSU for the fall semester, with the Aberdeen Public School Foundation and the Northern State University Foundation footing about half of the tuition bill. The former kicks in $25 per credit hour and the latter, $50, which leaves the student responsible for $70 per credit hour plus textbooks and lab fees.

Even though PC is a private Catholic school with higher tuition than NSU, Central's Rising Scholars at PC will pay the same as at NSU - $70 per credit hour, said PC spokeswoman Mickie Metzinger.

At either school, students must earn a grade of at least C on their college courses to get the lower rates. That was no problem for Taryn West, a Central senior who took biology at NSU during the fall semester; she earned a B.

West, 17, said she had completed almost all of the requirements for high school graduation by the time she started her senior year at Central. "So going to Northern was an opportunity not to waste time," West said Tuesday. "And I was ready for a change."

Central senior Corbin Surat, 17, who took the same biology course and also earned a B, said Rising Scholars is a great initiation into college life. "It gets you familiar with the atmosphere," he said.

Traditional college freshmen in the biology class had no idea Surat and West were high school students, unless it happened to be revealed in conversation, West said. And those who knew didn't treat them like high school kids, she said. Gary Harms, superintendent of Aberdeen public schools, NSU President Patrick Schloss and others came up with the idea of Rising Scholars.

Having only six students participate the first semester of Aberdeen's program was a bit disappointing, Harms said. "But I do expect the program will increase each year," he said.

Central Principal Jason Uttermark said he hopes for at least a dozen participants for the spring semester, "and 20 to 30 next year." Students must have performed at proficient or advanced levels on standardized state tests to be a Rising Scholar.

Catholic Roncalli High School in Aberdeen also participates in Rising Scholars, but with a different twist. Roncalli students take college-level courses for credit at their high school, under master's-level Roncalli teachers approved by the colleges.

Special gift: After reading about Aberdeen's new Rising Scholar program last year, a woman who lives outside the Aberdeen area pledged $5,000 to the public school foundation as an endowment for the $25 per credit the foundation contributes.

The woman wishes to remain anonymous, and is a widow of a 1949 graduate of Central, said Jessica Dorn, the foundation's executive director. Interest earned from the endowment will go toward Rising Scholars.

"It's a wonderful program," Dorn said. "It's good for the students and the colleges. It's win-win situation."

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Copyright (c) 2006, American News, Aberdeen, S.D.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: American News (Aberdeen, S.D.)

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