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YEC provides opportunity
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Jos Delapaz and Karen Leal are the first generation in their respective families to go to college.
The juniors at Youngs-town Early College enrolled in the school for the opportunity to earn college credit while in high school.
“I live with my father, and he’s struggling as it is,” said Karen, 17, an aspiring fashion designer. “I applied because it made it easier for my father and for me to be able to go to college.”
YEC, which has been designated “excellent” on the last three state report cards and is the only city school to earn that distinction, allows students to earn an associate degree while still in high school. There is no charge to the students for the college course work.
“It’s an accelerated program,” said Dennis Mamone, a history teacher at the school.
Ninth- and 10th-graders spend the school day in Fedor Hall at Youngstown State University, taking the bulk of their high-school classes during 90-minute blocks.
In their junior year, they’re out on the YSU campus taking classes alongside traditional college students. The only class they take in Fedor Hall is Spanish.
They can earn credit through either YSU or Eastern Gateway Community College.
Jos is taking pre- calculus, world history, mental-health wellness and a physical-education class. Karen is taking world history and mental-health wellness as well as fashion.
This marks Early College High Schools Week. The school plans an open house from 9:30 a.m. to noon Thursday and is accepting open-enrollment applications for incoming freshmen for this fall. Call 330-744-7923 for information.
YEC started in 2004. It’s one of 10 early-college high schools in Ohio. Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based education group, manages the early-college high school initiative.
About 200 students attend YEC, and Michele Dotson, the school’s dean, said only about 1 percent don’t complete the program. “It works,” she said.
That’s because it’s a small school with one mission: to allow students the opportunity to earn an associate degree by the time they graduate high school.
The school recruits middle-school students who score at least “proficient” on the reading section of the seventh-grade Ohio Achievement Assessment.
Mamone said the student body includes students who are middle-of-the-road as well as some who are academically advanced.
When juniors and seniors spend their school days on campus, academic coaches, advisers and coordinators ensure that they’re attending class and keeping up with the work.
Though YEC’s school day ends at 2 p.m., three days per week, teachers stay late to help students who may be struggling in class. That’s also time for students to get involved with YEC’s many academic clubs, Mamone said.
Though an accelerated schedule sounds difficult, Karen says classes aren’t that hard.
“The teachers are really nice,” she said. “If you don’t understand something, you talk to them, and they help you.”