SUNY Schenectady to host a virtual informational session for DCS students and families at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1
Did you know that students at Duanesburg Junior-Senior High School have the opportunity to earn credits towards an associate degree while they’re still in high school?
The “DSC+1” program with SUNY Schenectady launched in Fall 2021 and is designed for students to be able to complete an associate degree the year after they graduate from high school. Students can also utilize SUNY Schenectady summer programming or become full-time SUNY Schenectady students during their senior year of high school to earn enough credits to graduate with their associate degree already in hand.
In addition to getting a jumpstart on their college education, students in the DCS+1 program pay a reduced-rate tuition to earn their college credits, with some students qualifying for full-tuition waivers or full scholarships from the SUNY Schenectady Foundation.
SUNY Schenectady’s Director of College & High School Partnerships, Pamela McCall, will host a virtual informational session about the DCS+1 program for Duanesburg families with students in eighth and ninth grades at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1. A Zoom link was sent to families of eighth and ninth grade students. If you did not receive the link, please contact the DCS counseling office at (518) 895-5350 ext. 227.
If you are unable to attend the information session but have questions about the program, please contact Pamela McCall at mccallp@sunysccc.edu.
Justin Grant and Breanna Moss are sophomores at Duanesburg Senior High School and have already mapped out a plan to complete as many college credits as they can by the time they graduate from DCS in 2024.
Moss has plans to become a nurse and Grant’s goals are to attend MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to study science or robotics. Both students say that participation in the DCS+1 program has given them a nice head start towards their ultimate career goals and allowed them to earn early college credits in a much more cost effective way.
Grant says he would eventually like to earn both his masters and doctorate degrees, and in addition to MIT, says that both Yale and Stanford are on his list too. “I would love to not have as much debt, so earning as many college credits as I can now, seemed like a good way to go about achieving my goals,” he said.
By the time Breanna Moss was in seventh grade, she knew she wanted to be a nurse, but says it really “clicked” for her in ninth grade with Mr. Jenkins’ Living Environment class at DCS. “He makes things fun and has a good sense of humor in class,” Moss said.
She was also influenced by some very special nurses in her life, including her mom who is a nurse practitioner, and Stephanie Yauchler, the school nurse at Duanesburg Jr./Sr. High School, who helps Moss manage a heart condition.
Moss is approaching her education with a similar mindset as Grant, with the ultimate goal of avoiding student loan debt. There are several different types of nurses, with some titles requiring education beyond a bachelor’s degree.
Both Grant and Moss intend to take advantage of the opportunity to earn college credits over the next two summers, as a way to put them closer to their goals of graduating high school with as many college credits as possible.