Jonathan Hughes: [00:00:00] If you remember, I recently spoke to our friend Drew Carter from the College of the Holy Cross about how to begin the college search, and we focused not so much on the practical things like go to a college fair or how to schedule a college visit. No, instead, we explored how we might better take the pressure off of students before and during their search.

Think about what we’re asking young people to do. They’re expected to make an incredibly important decision when most of them have very little frame of reference for what college is actually like. Drew likened it to expecting someone who’s never sat on or even seen a couch before to pick out and purchase the perfect one online.

How can they possibly do it? A few weeks later, we did another show about MyCAP, Massachusetts’s program to promote college and career pathways at high schools and middle schools across the Commonwealth. It’s a comprehensive program that includes opportunities like taking [00:01:00] college classes, job shadowing, meeting local employers, and exploring careers and avenues that students might never have considered before.

Now, I saw how this played out specifically at Hoosac Valley Regional Middle and High School. In fact, if you go back and watch that episode, you’ll see very clearly how one student was able to see herself as an environmental police officer, a career she had never considered before. That exposure changed the way she thought about her future, and there it was again, exposure.

It was just becoming clear that students benefit enormously when we bring their future into their present. Early college programs are another way to do that. By making college a part of a student’s normal high school experience, these programs demystify higher education and increase college-going rates.

They help students see that they do belong in college, and this is a benefit for everyone, but it can be particularly helpful for [00:02:00] first-generation college students and for others for whom college may not feel like a foregone conclusion. Early college programs can also help reduce one of the biggest barriers to college, the cost.

Now, because early college programs often rely on partnerships between high schools and colleges, it’s not surprising that community colleges frequently play a central role. So today, let’s learn more about that role from Stefanae Bowen, the director of early college programs at Middlesex Community College.

She’s going to tell us all about the programs Middlesex offers, how they benefit students, and how these partnerships strengthen the community at large. Stephane, welcome to the MEFA Podcast.

Stefanae Bowen: Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Jonathan Hughes: Now, can you tell everybody, broadly speaking, what is early college?

Stefanae Bowen: Early college has different definitions depending on where you are. In Massachusetts, it’s a state initiative where high [00:03:00] schools and colleges can partner together and get a statewide designation. So early college is a form of dual enrollment, but specifically with early college, it’s a tailored experience with embedded supports for students.

Jonathan Hughes: Okay, and we’ll get to dual enrollment and things like that. What can you tell us about the early college initiative in Massachusetts?

Stefanae Bowen: So the Early College initiative in Massachusetts started around 2018. I think there’s about 70 or so partnerships across the state now. And when a high school applies and gets approved to have the state designation, they get an opportunity for their students to take college courses for free.

And with Early College, the goal is that students take at least 12 credits while they’re in high school. So that is a big cost savings for students to get at least a semester of college done. And there’s also embedded career pathways within Early College, so students can really think about what they wanna do after high [00:04:00] school.

Jonathan Hughes: And who should consider Early College programs, and then how would they proceed?

Stefanae Bowen: So Early College is really for everyone. The initiative started in the state to try to bring more underrepresented groups into higher education. So the target population is really first generation college students and students who might be, like, a middle achiever.

They’re not really an AP student. They’re doing okay in school. They’re not 100% sure if they even want to go to college. So we try to look for students who are in the middle of the road and want some guidance on what they want to do next.

Jonathan Hughes: So can you tell me about your role at Middlesex Community College and how you interact with Early College? What are those programs like?

Stefanae Bowen: So my role at Middlesex is the director of Early College initiatives, so I specifically work with our six Early College designated programs and also oversee concurrent enrollment. Okay. So [00:05:00] another definition there.

Jonathan Hughes: Let’s break down all of these things. Can we?

Stefanae Bowen: Yes. Okay. So concurrent enrollment differs from dual enrollment in the sense that concurrent enrollment runs in high schools, and we certify high school teachers to teach the college classes.

Jonathan Hughes: So the high school classes that students are taking in high school are actually college classes.

Stefanae Bowen: They can be, yeah. Can be- So they’ll have-

Jonathan Hughes: For concurrent enrollment-

Stefanae Bowen: depending on how many each school runs, but they’ll be running the same exact class that would run on our Middlesex campus or online, but in the high school. Okay. So we get a syllabus from them, we get the resume from the high school instructor, make sure that they would be approved to teach at the college, and that they’re also going to meet the same outcomes that they would have got if they took this class on our college campus.

Jonathan Hughes: That’s concurrent enrollment. Now, you mentioned dual enrollment earlier. What’s that?

Stefanae Bowen: So we also have dual enrollment. So you can think of [00:06:00] dual enrollment as the umbrella, and concurrent enrollment and early college fall under that. So dual enrollment is overall just students who are taking college classes while they are in high school in one form or another.

But for Middlesex, that means that it would be a student who’s coming to campus or taking the class online with someone who’s already hired as an adjunct or a full-time professor with us. And more often than not, the student is paying to take that class.

Jonathan Hughes: That was my question. The student does have to pay for that class.

And an interesting wrinkle with dual enrollment, they can’t file FAFSAs. Is that right?

Stefanae Bowen: They can’t. Yes. So that’s really interesting, because when free community college became a thing- Oh, yes … everyone was wondering what that would do to dual enrollment in Massachusetts, but you can’t file your FASFA, therefore you can’t get free community college till after you graduate.

Jonathan Hughes: Oh, wow. That is good to know. Does that… Have you found that hampers the en- the, the [00:07:00] participation in dual enrollment courses?

Stefanae Bowen: Not as much. We were really curious to see what happens, but it hasn’t really. I think it’s offered a different way to look at what programs like dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, early college do for benefits other than just getting the credits.

So students know now that they can go for free afterwards, but we still have a lot of students who want to challenge themselves in high school and want to get ahead a bit.

Jonathan Hughes: If all of this early college talk is making you think of a student that you know that you think would be interested, go ahead, push pause, and forward them this episode right now.

Don’t wait till the end. You’ll be glad you did. Now, you’re from Middlesex Community College, and this obviously deals with Relationships between colleges and high schools. How many high schools and what is the scope of that sort of relationship? How far does that reach?

Stefanae Bowen: Middlesex has a really [00:08:00] large dual enrollment concurrent early college program.

We work with between 30 and 40 high schools every year across Massachusetts to offer concurrent enrollment, and then I think I mentioned before, six of them have been designated as early college programs. So even the concurrent enrollment students who don’t have early college, they get a discount on tuition to take the classes, or sometimes the high schools will find ways to fund that so the students can still take these classes for free if they don’t have a designation at their school.

Jonathan Hughes: So we did Concurrent enrollment, dual enrollment, what are the other programs that you offer?

Stefanae Bowen: Those are the main forms of the programs, but with Early College, there’s two different options. So we have students who are strictly concurrent enrollment, like we have a program at Martha’s Vineyard. They’re too far away to come to campus every day, so they usually do that and then will come for a summer class.

But we also have the Early College Independence Program, which is through [00:09:00] Lowell High School, and Nashoba Tech also has a version of this program. And with Lowell, they walk down the street after lunch, they have lunch at their high school, and then get to walk to campus and they take the classes there to have an immersive experience with us.

Early College Independence is going into just the first few years of this program, and it’s growing every year. So this fall we expect 80 students to come from Lowell High School. So they’ll get a chance to take a college class each day. And then our Nashoba Tech students also can earn their associate degree while they’re in high school, while they’re also getting a trade.

Jonathan Hughes: Wow.

Stefanae Bowen: So concurrent enrollment is amazing as an access point, and a lot of these students at Nashoba Tech and Lowell will start that way and then move into the opportunity to come to campus, too. And I think that can give them a different experience as well, because they’re in classes with either students from other high schools or any age of student that’s attending the college and can use all of our services while [00:10:00] they’re on campus.

Jonathan Hughes: And there’s also an element of community interaction with this program, is there not?

Stefanae Bowen: There is. So we try to partner with different community organizations as well. For example, tons of students are interested in healthcare, so that’s been something that we’re thinking about a lot. And we have one credit courses that students can take and bundle into a social science elective.

Part of that is career exploration courses, and from that, if a student wants to take a health career exploration course, they can go over to Lowell General Hospital and have an experience there. And we can also partner with the Lowell Community Health Alliance. They have a program called HYPE that gives mostly a summer experience is where we’re at right now, but students get an internship experience, they get a mentorship experience, and that hands-on real life work does a lot to help coach a student of where they want to end up in the future.

Jonathan Hughes: And how would a student find that program? [00:11:00] Would, do they need to be referred by their counselor? Do they hear about it organically?

Stefanae Bowen: So for our early college designated schools, like with Lowell High School and that new opportunity, most of the high schools have a point of contact, and that usually falls within their school counseling office.

So it’s always great to go talk to your school counselor and ask them what dual enrollment or early college opportunities are available, and then they will also connect them back to their higher ed partner, who their academic counselor can coach them on what to do next.

Jonathan Hughes: We talked about earning credits, and I think a lot of the time, and I know for me, when I think about early college, when I think about dual enrollment, when I think about concurrent enrollment or earning college credits in high school, the first benefit I always think of is cost, right?

Oh, you’re saving money towards your degree. But that’s not the biggest thing as far as you’re concerned, right?

Stefanae Bowen: It’s not. And of course, it’s a huge incentive to say I’m saving time or [00:12:00] money by taking this class, but the confidence that it can build in students to see that they can be college-ready even while they’re in high school, they can take on the work, and they can also learn a lot of the soft skills you need to be successful in higher ed, in the workforce if they decide not to go to college or beyond.

But it teaches them, one of the main things they say is time management. It’s really different to be taking a college class that only runs a few hours a week, and then they have to be reading a lot outside of school. They’re writing lengthier papers and figuring out how to manage their time a little bit differently to have more autonomy and also to advocate for themselves when they have a question to reach out to their community, to reach out to their professor.

Jonathan Hughes: Just want to pause right there to let you know that if you’re enjoying this talk about early college and you want to know more, we have other episodes that would have touched on this very topic in [00:13:00] slightly different ways. That’s What Is Early College from January of 2025, and The Road Less Traveled from all the way back in November of 2022.

Do you feel that this program, programs like the Early College Initiative and dual enrollment and concur, all forms of early college, helps to break down barriers that have traditionally kept some students out of college?

Stefanae Bowen: I absolutely do. I think that bringing these programs to a student where they’re at makes them feel much more comfortable with that, and it makes them, for example, if they’re going to matriculate onto Middlesex, they have familiar faces.

They’ve been hearing through workshops about how to do their FAFSA, how to fill out an application, and it doesn’t feel so stressful about the unknown when they have it brought straight to them.

Jonathan Hughes: So if you can imagine a student listening now or watching us now and wanting to [00:14:00] take advantage of early college, they like what they’ve heard, what would you recommend?

Stefanae Bowen: I would recommend that they speak to their school counselor to see what opportunities that they have and to give it a try, to figure out if it’s going to fit into their schedule. If they’re doing early college, this is free for them. There’s always some risk involved. We want students to do well because it goes on their college transcript.

So but they should know that they’re going to get support. They have embedded tutoring offered. They can get that online. They can meet with an academic counselor. If they’re worried about it, the least they could do is just ask questions about it and try it out and see how that’s going to go for them. More and more I hear from students that these courses are not necessarily harder than what they’ve taken in high school.

Like an AP class is really hard, an honors class is really hard, and it’s just a different type of work. So that is so helpful for a student to learn early on, and the [00:15:00] supports are there if they need them.

Jonathan Hughes: What’s your experience been hearing from students?

Stefanae Bowen: So it’s really rewarding to hear from the ex- the students.

I’ve only been at Middlesex for six months, but in the end of the spring semester we do a dual enrollment recognition ceremony where we had 500 students come and all of those students had earned at least 12 credits. So to be able to talk to some of the parents afterwards was amazing when they talked about what their student got out of it, when they said all of their credits are gonna transfer either to a state school or a private school, and them feeling more prepared for the next step is just such a great thing to hear.

I’m a first-generation college student myself. I ended up in a lot of student debt, so it’s really important to me, too, to help students figure out ways that they can afford to go to college and live the life that they want to live once they’re into their career.

Jonathan Hughes: I think that, This is something that will continue to grow, early college?

Stefanae Bowen: Absolutely, [00:16:00] and it will. The goal in Massachusetts is to get to 100,000 students in the next 10 years. Oh, is

Jonathan Hughes: that right?

Stefanae Bowen: So- Ah … I think this past couple of years we’ve got to between 10 and 12,000, so it’s going to continue to grow. More and more high schools are applying, and colleges are supporting those students as well, so we will see it expand over the next few years across the state.

Jonathan Hughes: We’ll have you back on to talk about it some more then.

Stefanae Bowen: Absolutely. Thank you.

Jonathan Hughes: Thank you, Stephanie.

Stefanae Bowen: Appreciate it.

Jonathan Hughes: Thanks. It’s really exciting to hear the ways that we’re evolving and making college attainable and seamless for the next generation of Massachusetts students. Hopefully we’ll be meeting some of those students soon.

Until then, my name is Jonathan Hughes, and this has been the MEFA podcast.