When Eric Alonso Diaz graduates from Middletown High School in May, he won’t just walk away with a high school diploma; he’ll also earn his associate degree from Miami University’s Middletown Campus.
For the past two years, Alonso Diaz has been enrolled in Miami’s Early College Academy, a program that lets high school students complete the requirements for an associate degree during their junior and senior years. This spring, Alonso Diaz will be among the ECA’s first graduating class of 19 students.
“It’s something that was a very good opportunity,” Alonso Diaz said. “I want to enter medical school, which can take a long time.”
Miami held a banquet at the Marcum Hotel and Conference Center on April 25 for the ECA graduates, who will also get to walk at Miami regional graduation ceremonies.
“We wanted to eliminate and reduce any kind of financial barriers to families by this unique program where we leverage what the state was able to give us to provide students and then to get [them] through this with a very low cost,” Miami President Gregory Crawford said at the ceremony.
The program is primarily funded through College Credit Plus (CCP), a program which allows high school students to take college courses for free at public institutions. To make the program more accessible, Miami covers the cost of remedial courses which aren’t available through CCP.
Alicia Justice, director of dual credit programs at Miami, said the ECA differs from CCP because ECA students only take college courses for their final two years of high school.
The program initially launched through partnerships with Middletown and Hamilton High schools, but it expanded in its second year to include Franklin, Madison, New Miami and Winton Woods High schools, as well.
Miami has partnered with local school districts to provide transportation for students to get from their high schools to Miami’s regional campuses.
Out of the 19 graduating ECA students, 13 are first generation college students, Justice said.
“We work to prioritize first generation college students or students that are historically underserved in higher education,” Justice said.
Each student graduating from the ECA this year will have an associate of arts in general studies degree, which Justice said aligns well with their high school course requirements. They can customize their later courses to have a specific concentration.
The program should continue to grow in the coming years, with 80-85 students expected to graduate next spring. Justice said two new school districts will join the program next year.
Justice said more than half of the recent graduates this year are going on to pursue bachelor’s degrees at Miami’s main campus.
For Alonso Diaz, next steps include pursuing a degree in biology from Miami. While he said the past two years have been “a little stressful,” he said he had fun with his classes and learned a lot, especially in two semesters of chemistry.
“I feel like [Miami] has everything I need,” Alonso said, “and it’s close to home, so it definitely works out for me.”
