High Schoolers Take SMC Courses For Free

Alexander Licudine, a thirteen-year-old high school senior taking college courses at Santa Monica College, studies for his Math 54 Elementary Statistics class at a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe in Marina del Rey, California on Thursday, March 14, 2019. Licudine is a home-schooled high school student in the High School Concurrent Enrollment Program offered by SMC. “I started taking classes here when I turned 13. It was actually a weird process, though. My birthday is on the 23rd [August], so I had to crash all my courses, because the classes opened way before that and all the classes were closed. So I could only enroll three days before classes started,” he says. Licudine will be transferring to Biola University in the 2019-2020 school year with a double major in Music and Pre-Med. (Photo by Catherine Lima/Corsair Staff)

At 13 years old, Alexander Licudine is the youngest student in his college math class. Already a high school senior, he began taking classes at Santa Monica College (SMC) last fall. Licudine is one of hundreds of students enrolled in SMC’s Concurrent Enrollment Program, which offers free tuition to high school students who wish to take college classes simultaneously with their high school studies. 

“I started taking classes here right when I turned 13,” Licudine said. “It’s really nice and the professors are really nice too.”

Cael Edwards, who works in the Admissions Office as a student services assistant, helps oversee the enrollment program. “Ultimately my goal for the students is that they come here and have an experience that helps them learn how to be more independent,” said Edwards.

Students must be at least 13-years-old, have completed eighth grade, and have at least a C grade in whatever subject they are enrolling in. Once enrolled in the program, high school students are held to the same standards as any college student. They are “completely responsible for themselves,” Edwards said, “so it has become really important that we have students that are both academically, emotionally and socially ready to be in a college class on our campus.”

“I think the biggest challenge was doing multiple things at once,” Licudine said. “It’s just difficult when you have so many things going on in different places.”

Concurrent enrollment programs, also known as “dual enrollment” programs, are not unique to SMC. Schools in 48 states are registered with the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, one of the organizations that oversee these types of programs

According to Edwards, there are “hundreds, sometimes thousands, of students” enrolled at SMC “during their high school terms.” And that number is even higher during the summer.

Kiersten Elliott, Dean of Community and Academic Relations, runs the Summer Springboard Program, which aims to increase the number of concurrently enrolled high school students during the summer term.

“On a normal summer, we have 600 students,” Elliott said. “I would love to double that if we could.”

Enrollment in these programs is on the rise. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of concurrently enrolled students increased nationwide by about 80% between 2002 and 2011.

Alexander Licudine, a thirteen-year-old high school senior taking college courses at Santa Monica College, browsing through the books at a Barnes and Nobles in Marina del Rey, California on Thursday, March 14, 2019. Despite his young age, Licudine didn’t have a hard time adjusting to the college life-style. He says, “as long as I had the syllabus online and I had a plan, it wasn’t too hard. Most of the time I spent studying in the library since there is a computer lab and it’s quiet in there, too.” He will be transferring to Biola University in the 2019-2020 school year with a double major in Music and Pre-Med. (Photo by Catherine Lima/Corsair Staff)

The National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships asserts that these types of dual enrollment programs “successfully transition students from high school to college.”

Licudine, who has already been accepted into the fall semester at Biola University, approximately 30 miles from Santa Monica, agrees. “I think they really help you prepare for the bigger colleges,” he said.

“I’m excited to see what’s in store for me in the fall when I go to university,” Licudine added. “And I think this was a nice way to prepare myself for that.”