The first class of the Golden Triangle Early College High School is halfway through its first year.
The high school, located on East Mississippi Community College’s Mayhew campus, began under principal Jill Savely last fall. The school is made up of small classes and gives students the opportunity to collect college credits. Currently 61 freshmen attend the school, but with the success of the first semester under the school’s belt, Savely has already begun recruiting rising ninth graders for next year.
The goal of an early college high school is to give students in public schools a different environment in which to learn. Alexis Turner applied to GTECHS because she wanted to be challenged. She had never had to study in elementary or middle school, but that’s changed since she began GTECHS.
The formerly shy 14-year-old, who never got involved in any activities other than choir at her old school in New Hope, is now on the student council.
“I gave my speech and I thought I was going to throw up,” she said. “But I didn’t. … I didn’t get stage fright that much. You feel comfortable here.”
While Turner and the other students who ran for student council gave their speeches, Eli Box thought about what he would say when he ran for student council next year. The 15-year-old from Columbus also applied to GTECHS to be challenged, but he also had a tendency to get in trouble in his old schools and was looking for a new start here. He didn’t run for student council this year because he’s still getting “into the swing of things” he said, but he plans to next year.
Both Box and Turner were surprised by how easy it has been for them to make friends at GTECHS.
“(It was a) big surprise making new friends because (when) you come to a new school, you only know a couple of people,” Turner said. “And by the first day I met new people, and then by the end of the week I had a whole different group of friends and we’ve been together ever since.”
Box also made friends quickly. On his first day, he was clowning around on the bus and in the classroom before class started. A girl he’d never met punched him in the arm and asked him why he was being so loud.
“So instead of being hostile like I would at any other school because someone just randomly punched me, I started talking to her and I got to know her,” Box said. “And by the end of second period, we had our math teacher walk up and ask us … .’Are y’all siblings?’ Because we had gotten along so well that first day. And that’s the kind of unique experiences that you’re not going to find anywhere else except for a school like this because (at) most other schools, if someone does something like that (you’re probably going to fight).”
Class structure
The students attend math, science and English classes in trailers at the back of EMCC’s campus. They take a history class online with Mississippi Virtual Public Schools and also take a course for college credit. Their first semester, they all took College Study Skills, a class that helped them learn how to study, take notes and stay organized for college-level courses. Savely said the students all had good grades in the class at the end of the semester.
Savely said one of the things the students had to get used to during their first semester was getting information themselves. They were so used to being told what to know, rather than encouraged to figure it out for themselves, that it was frustrating for them at times. Still, she said, they got used to the pace of the classes very quickly.
“They have really acclimated beautifully and they’ve been very successful,” she said.
During their first semester, the students read To Kill a Mockingbird. Neither Box nor Turner had ever read it before. Box admitted with a chuckle that he had always thought it was about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Turner was a little bit more familiar with it – she’d seen the movie when she was in eighth grade. But reading the book made her want to be a lawyer.
In fact even though both are still freshmen, Box and Turner both have plans for college. Turner wants to go to Harvard, though she knows that will take a lot of money. Box wants to get as many college credits under his belt as possible and then go to Mississippi University for Women on scholarships before heading on to graduate school. He wants to be a licensed counselor.
Savely said that later in their high school careers, the students at GTECHS can choose pathways to follow in the direction of whatever career they want, whether they go on to college or want to get a job straight out o high school. Students can choose programs offered at EMCC, such as welding, and have a skill to put to work as soon as they graduate.
Savely says the entire freshman class will stay at GTECHS and become the first sophomore class at the school.
And she’s already promoting GTECHS at middle schools in the five school districts that can send students to the school. Only rising ninth graders may apply. Applications are due Feb. 19.
“Our schools is not for any one particular type of student,” Savely said. “(It’s for) any kid who wants to try something new.”
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