By Faith Zantua, Co-Copy Editor

In October 2022, a team of district faculty, including 11th grade assistant principal Dr. Matthew Sterenczak, started looking into different dual enrollment options for Conestoga. This year, Conestoga officially partnered with Gwynedd Mercy, Immaculata and West Chester universities to provide new dual enrollment programs. Students who successfully pass a university’s dual enrollment course will receive one Conestoga credit and three credits the university is providing that course.

District faculty began looking into dual enrollment options due to interest in expanding learning options, the implementation of a Pennsylvania law requiring school entities to have at least one dual enrollment agreement and local universities’ expansion of dual enrollment programs resulting from the law.

West Chester University requires high school students to go to its Graduate Center to take a dual enrollment course. Conestoga is currently finalizing the details of the arrangement. Conestoga teachers will teach Gwynedd Mercy and Immaculata’s courses at the high school. Gwynedd Mercy offers accounting and economics courses, and Immaculata offers an astronomy course.

“We want to make sure that there (is) access (to dual enrollment),” Sterenczak said. “So if a student can’t drive or doesn’t have enough free periods in their schedule to get to another location, we (can) still find a way for them to participate in dual enrollment.”

Before enrolling, students must pay a fee to the university. Gwynedd Mercy’s fee is $400 per course and Immaculata’s is $300. Students in a Conestoga class with a dual enrollment counterpart will learn the same material in the same class as students paying for dual enrollment, regardless of if they’re paying for dual enrollment credit.

Conestoga administration looked into universities that have syllabi and curriculum requirements matching Conestoga’s in order to prevent any major changes to classes’ current syllabi.

A Conestoga teacher must have at least a master’s degree to teach a dual enrollment course, in most cases. Currently, Justin Davey, Bernadette D’Emilio, Brian Gallagher and Michael Kane will teach dual enrollment courses at Conestoga. D’Emilio, who teaches Accounting 1 and 2, has some concerns regarding the transfer of credits earned through dual enrollment to non-participating universities.

“I think it (is) a good opportunity for the kids to possibly get (college) credit,” D’Emilio said. “I think the question remains ‘Will these credits transfer (to other universities)?’”

Enrollment for Gwynedd Mercy and Immaculata’s programs is due on varying days from September to October this year depending on the specific course. The district plans to make West Chester’s course available next year.

Students can sign up by talking to a guidance counselor. The universities only allow juniors and seniors to participate in dual enrollment. According to Sterenczak, district faculty will look into proposing the idea of younger grades taking dual enrollment courses. Sophomore Angela Wang, who currently takes Accounting 1, is interested in Gwynedd Mercy’s accounting course.

“For $400, three college credits is pretty cheap,” Wang said. “But the biggest problem (for) me is that I don’t know if any university I’m going to go to in the future will accept the credit. I’m probably gonna do a lot of research, like go through my college list and see if any of them will accept the transfer of credit from that particular university.”

Faith Zantua can be reached at [email protected].