Early College Program
The University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu Early College High School Program Consortium is committed to creating a sustainable program which provides baccalaureate level educational opportunities to secondary school partners who serve low-income youths, first-generation college goers, and students who come from ethnic backgrounds who are largely underrepresented in higher education. Our aim is to increase college and career readiness and cultivate in students the skills necessary to succeed in college and beyond.
The UH West Oʻahu Early College High School Program Consortium works with UH System partners to offer secondary school students cost-free opportunities to earn 15 college credits or more, thereby supporting the State’s educational goal of increasing the amount of adults who hold a college degree to 55% by year 2025. The Early College High School Program Consortium is also committed to supporting the UH West Oʻahu Strategic Plan to create globally engaged leaders who will contribute back and meet the needs of society on state, regional, and international levels.
What is the Early College Program?
The goal of the program is to expose students to the rigors and intensity of college at an earlier age. The Early College High School Program receive academic, social, as well as emotional support. Thus, the Early College High School Program not only creates a college-going culture in the best and brightest, but it also inspires the average and so-called “under achieving” students as well. Programs cover tuition as well as any course related expenses.
Since 2014, the Early College High School Program has not only become a UH System wide initiative, but an initiative supported in theory by the State of Hawaiʻi as well.
Program Information
- From Fall 2012 to Spring 2017 the program has served 1,070 students from high schools situated in the most economically depressed communities in O‘ahu (i.e., Nānākuli, Wai‘anae, and Waipahu).
- UH West Oʻahu has awarded 2,560 credits, saving families from these indigent communities an estimated total of $768,000 in tuition fees (this does not include textbook and class material savings).
- Students participating in the program achieved a 93% success rate (i.e., receiving a “C” grade or better in class).
- Students who participated in the Early College Program and who went on to enroll at UH West Oʻahu have significantly higher GPAs, were more prepared (as measured by completion of English 100 and Math 103), and were more likely to persist (as measured by enrollment in Fall 2016) than students who did not participate in the Early College Program.
- We now have partnerships with James Campbell High School, Kapolei High School, and are working to create a partnership with Leilehua High School. By 2018, the UH West Oʻahu will offer an unprecedented amount of educational opportunities to the entire West O‘ahu.
- UH West Oʻahu is now launching Early College 2.0 (an idea we worked on with Waipahu High School), featuring a vertically-articulated program with the UH West Oʻahu Creative Media program. It also works with the Teachers Training Program under Title III Pueo Scholars.
- By utilizing the “dual credit” model, students will be able to complete most of their HI DOE requirements before their Senior year (and some before their Junior year).
- As such, these students will have the time to take more specialized, college level course work before they complete high school!
- The end result will be a more vibrant and energetic workforce; competent and capable of handling the demands of the 21st century economy in Hawai‘i.