Hastings High School is one of the many schools who help students out by offering college credit and helping students with their futures.
College credit is a standardized system for determining educational requirements and progress toward a degree. Most college credit classes award 3-6 credits, which schools apply to your course of study. HHS over the years has gained classes that offer college credit for students who are willing to take it.
The classes that are offered for students are Communication Arts, American Government, Advanced Chemistry, Intro to Transportation, Vocational Autos, Engineering Applications, Arch Drafting/Design, Precision Machine Process, Advanced Manufacturing Design Technology, World Literature, European History, Spanish 3, Spanish 4, Physics, Calculus, and Building Trades. These classes that provide college credits are not solely college credit classes and students can still take the class, just without the credits.
Matthew Hurt is one of the teachers who have been teaching Advanced Manufacturing Design Technology for fourteen years. Hurt has been teaching the class for many years and has gained profound experience with the class and the new round of students that come each year.
“The Manufacturing & Welding program was an articulated course with CCC-Hastings well before we offered it for dual credit. With articulation, the courses I taught matched the same competencies taught at the college but were not the exact same courses. The reason we went into teaching dual credit was for the countless benefits it held for our manufacturing students, the main one being the 15 hours of free credit towards their manufacturing degree,” Hurt said.
Most students are nervous or afraid to take a college credit class because they think it’s hard. The students who are in the classes have had the opportunity to see how this can really help them and how it can help other students as well.
“It’s definitely pushed me to be a more hard working student and be able to manage my time. It’s also given me a lot of social skills and confidence in myself!” Junior Amber Rail said.
Students have the opportunity to learn first hand what college will be like and they will get the opportunity to help their college education move faster with gaining college credits from high school. While the students are gaining new opportunities, so are the teachers. The teachers have had to go through teaching a regular class to change it up and teaching a college credit class with a new curriculum and new students.
“We were already in a good position for teaching the class so it was an easy transition,” Science teacher Jim Fielder said.
Students have had multiple different moments in their classes that have changed the way they view the class and the challenges that are given to them that are obstacles they have had to overcome. The class has helped them look at the situation and make it better for them so that they can succeed.
“I worked super hard on a speech and when I finally presented it, I got pretty close to perfect! It was very rewarding,” Rail said.
The college credit classes that are provided to students are believed to be helpful. Although HHS has fifteen college credit classes, some students think that the school should add more college credit classes.
“I think they should totally add more classes so people can get a better advantage in college with more options,” Senior Kevin Marquez said.
Some students have taken multiple college credit classes that have helped and prepared them for after high school. Some students are beginning to figure out what taking a class like this will really do for them and their futures.
“I would like to take more classes like this, I wish I signed up for more of them and I would if I had another year too,” Marquez said.
When HHS was built in 1884, it offered a multitude of classes and now it offers even more. Many students have gone through their high school lives at HHS and many teachers have gone through their teaching years at HHS as well. Different teachers have passed on responsibilities to the next teacher that steps up for their place when they leave or retire and the classes change or continue on the same.
“It’s a good experience for everybody and it’s something that I have been working forward to since I have been here. I think if someone could come in and continue it on then that would make me proud, that would be my legacy,” Skilled & Technical Sciences teacher, Daniel Birnie said.
