Roanoke College is providing free college classes to high school students

Salem, Virginia – An increasing number of students are getting ready to return to school as the summer draws to a close. To provide high school students with the option to get a jump start on earning college credit, Roanoke College is offering this opportunity.

It is during your senior year of high school that you begin to make decisions regarding the type of work you wish to pursue or whether or not you should attend college. The Explore@RC program at Roanoke College is designed with the intention of assisting students in locating the answers they seek. A new lab school gives students in grades 10 through 12 the opportunity to enroll in 12 college-level classes and begin the process of earning a four-year degree.

“There are three distinctive pathways that students can choose from and there’s courses within those pathways they can select from. With that said there is usually four to five selections they can make, and they can take up to 2 classes per semester,” said Explore@RC Executive Director, Natasha Watts. “There’s STEM/Healthcare. That’s one pathway. There’s Education/Global Studies. That’s another pathway and there’s Communications/Civic Engagement. That’s our last pathway.”

The best aspect is that there is no cost involved. Free tuition, fees, books, and tutoring, among other benefits. After receiving a grant from the Virginia Board of Education in the amount of $3.5 million, the college introduced a program that allows students to enroll in both classes simultaneously.

“The governor I hoping to have a vast majority of lab schools and we are one of those. The original grant we received is to plan it and the additional grant we just received is to actually do the next four years of free college credit for students in the Roanoke valley and all of the commonwealth,” said Watts.

Students who participate in Explore@RC will have the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the college experience by attending classes on the Roanoke College campus while continuing to participate in activities at their school. Thus, how does it function?

“We have a half-day program. It will continue to run as a half-day program. The really unique part of Explore@RC is we actually want students on our college campus. Any of the other lab schools have virtual opportunities but we want students integrated in what it’s meant to be on a college campus. What that means is our students come around 8am/8:30am in the morning and they are picked up before lunch so that they can go back to their homeschool division eat lunch there and finish there remaining periods of the day,” said Watts.

“What we did that for is its an easy way to transition students into the college lab but its also a way for them to test out the waters and see if it fits without overburdening their high school schedule,” said Watts.

For Salem City students, there is no cost associated with transportation. The next year, Roanoke College is considering making such service available to students from other districts.

Students from all throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia are welcome to participate in Explore@RC. On August 1st, the application deadline for the program will be reached.