Many students look to advance their career through dual enrollment

Many GHS seniors have decided to take a different path for their final year of high school and are involved in a dual enrollment program through MATC or WCTC. This program allows high school students to go to the technical colleges and enroll in college courses. 

Many of these courses include programs in the trades such as welding and carpentry. Other fields are Fire EMT, Nursing, Culinary and Baking, Robotics and a lot more. And one of the biggest bonuses about these programs is that they are free of charge for all students because GHS pays for the full cost of the course.

This year there are 26 GHS students currently enrolled in dual enrollment. Erin Cherney, MATC Dual enrollment manager thinks this is a great option for students.“Dual enrollment allows students to fast track themselves into post secondary education,” she said. “It allows students the opportunity to gain early career exposure and access to classes they might not have at their high school all at a minimal cost to the student and family. Most importantly it gives students first hand experience in their proposed career area while completing high school and college credit at the same time.” 

Guidance counselor Chris Meunch oversees all the dual enrollment students at GHS and he encourages students to enroll in these programs to really get a feel for what their future career could look like. “Dual Enrollment is a great way to start the transition to college.  You get to take college level courses in fields that GHS does not offer like Fire Science, Construction, Robotics, and many more,” he said.  “You earn credits for graduating as well as credits you can use in college.  The best part is that GHS will pay the tuition for the courses as long as you do well in them.”

Students who are in these programs need their own source of transportation, so many students carpool, like  Senior Joey Sarnowski.  ”I drive to Waukesha every morning with some other guys who are also in dual enrollment. We switch off driving every day,” Sarnowski said.

One of the more popular, competitive programs is fire fighting. Senior Mason Stott is one of two GHS students in this program.  ”This program prepared us for real life firefighting because they taught us what to do in certain situations. They also had a very high ranked member in the firefighting community teach us things. They put us in situations with real fire as well, and we have to put all of our equipment on in a certain amount of time just like in a real situation,” Stott said.

Senior Seth Michalski is doing the construction trades program and he believes that the dual enrollment program helps students in multiple ways. “Dual Enrollment gives me the opportunity to be more independent in school. We are also treated like adults and I feel more motivated to succeed.” he said.