Sixteen Warren County School District students are on their way to college credit before even graduating high school thanks to the St. Bonaventure Dual Enrollment Program. The program is in its sixth year and has allowed students enrolled full-time to graduate high school with their diploma and as many as 59 credits to apply to their college of choice.

“You’re enrolled in St. Bonaventure,” WCCBI CEO James Decker said. “It’s how the credits have full transfer weight.”

There will be an informational meeting for interested sophomores and juniors and their parents on Tues., Jan. 6, from 6 to 9 p.m. on the first floor of the Pine Grove Ambulatory Surgery Center (where classes are held). There will be tours, presentations, and student and parent groups about experiences, tuition, and course offerings.

It’s a program that there’s certainly student interest in.

“We’ve had as high as 27 students enrolled,” Decker said. “The target for the program is to have upward of 25 students. It makes it a little more of a viable program and you get more of that social aspect of college.”

The program, which also focuses heavily on students interaction, gives students a college experience before stepping onto a college campus.

“You get the opportunity to really learn how college professors teach,” said Decker. “The expectation in terms of maturity of the student and getting their work done is higher.”

There is tutoring and support available to students, Decker said, and the students are truly treated as college students, not high school students.

“They’re given the freedom to fail,” Decker said. “You’re not given that freedom in high school. In college, if you don’t cut it, you’re done.”

And while the credits count for college, students can still take classes and participate in extracurriculars in their home high schools.

“Class time for the St. Bonaventure program is mornings only. They’re finished by 1 p.m.,” said Decker. “They have the availability to take whatever classes they need at their home school. They can take the St. Bonaventure programs and AP classes. Some students have already finished their graduation requirements, so they’re done at 1.”

The classes taught in the St. Bonaventure program are taught by accredited St. Bonaventure professors and are the same classes taught on campus. Those professors are part of what makes the St. Bonaventure program special.

“There are several other dual enrollment programs in the district. The difference being that the St. Bonaventure program was structured to take students out of the high school environment and put them in a college environment,” Decker said.

The fact that the classes aren’t taught by high school teachers in high school classrooms “was very well received by the PA Department of Education,” said Decker. “It was also well received by the other universities.”

But while 100-200 level core credits such as math, sciences, and English should all transfer to other universities when students graduate high school, that isn’t the case with specials.

“If you’re taking classes in your major that you’re getting a degree in, you’re taking those classes from your chosen institution,” Decker said of non-transferring credits.

Students in the program have been incredibly positive about what it’s done for them.

“Every single one of them speaks of the way this program prepared them for college,” Decker said. “When they did get to college, they had to learn the social aspects, but they didn’t have the fear of the academic unknowns.”

And those students, Decker said, are ahead of their classmates and are succeeding. Six students have gone on to study at St. Bonaventure after they’ve graduated, while others have gone on to Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, and Ivy League schools.

The program does have a tuition fee-absolutely no more than $392 per credit after St. Bonaventure, Warren County School District, and Community Foundation of Warren scholarships for every student-but thanks to other scholarships from St. Bonaventure and the Community Foundation, some students have gone through the program for just the cost of books.

“Every student is getting at least 50 percent of their costs covered,” Decker said. “No one is denied access due to financial difficulties.”

“There are great opportunities in the district and this just adds to that,” Decker said. “It helps students get a leg up on their college careers for those who want to be challenged.”