UTRGV is collaborating with Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District (HCISD) to construct a new early college high school campus, which will open in Fall 2021.
Veronica Kortan, HCISD’s administrator for organizational development, said the university signed an interlocal agreement on Feb. 28, in which each institution will pay $7.5 million to build the new campus.
The new campus, to be located near the northeast corner of Camelot Drive and Hale Street, will be used by Harlingen Early College High School, whose students will graduate with about 40 college hours. HCISD is expecting to enroll 100 students per grade.
“But, also, UTRGV will be offering other coursework that will lead to a baccalaureate program. It’s really important for our community because it’s going to bring some of the coursework here in Harlingen. Currently, our people in Harlingen travel either to Edinburg or Brownsville for coursework,” Kortan said.
She said she hopes Harlingen residents will be able to use the facility there and the next phase of the partnership is to finalize the last details.
The current partnership consists of UTRGV professors going to the students’ classrooms.
“With this new facility, I would imagine, our students will be taking courses in the UTRGV building and their professors will be there as well,” Kortan said.
Students will follow UTRGV’s schedule. Transportation for students will be provided by the high school and possibly UTRGV shuttles, depending on the program and course offerings.
Students would be able to start their academic core classes and three different pathways, including an aspiring teacher residency academy, pre-engineering and computer science.
“We are looking at offering all of the courses in the academic core, but also working with the individual colleges, to identify courses that our students could take in high school that would help them as they are matriculating into UTRGV,”Kortan said.
Requirements for students are being designed and will depend on the student’s program.
“The application process is going to be much like the application process to get into an Honors College at UTRGV,” she said.
Kortan said high school juniors and seniors will take high school classes but will mostly enroll in university courses.
“Our goal is to have our students, yes, complete the academic core, and, yes, get all the course work that they need to be considered for those pathways at UTRGV, but … we are embedding true experiences in that pathway,” she said. “If our students are wanting to be educators, then every year of their four-year high school career, they have different activities that are appropriate for their learning, but that will also give them an idea of what it looks like and feels like to be an educator.”
Skills including lesson planning and working with students would be taught during their high school career.
“We are going to be embedding something that we are calling ‘capstone projects,’ and so the capstone projects will allow students to really take a deep dive into the research part of their career,”Kortan said.
She said students who are going to study a medical field could do a research project about a health-related issue.
Design work for the building will begin after Spring Break.
“It usually takes us about a year to build a campus, a school,” Kortan said. “So, if we’re opening up in the fall of 2021, then we would probably start somewhere between the spring of 2020 and the fall of 2020.”
She said she hopes the campus will make college a reality for students.
“Considering our area, we have several families who would not have otherwise been able to afford a full college education,” Kortan said. “So, when you think of that, we are bringing college to all of our students, and that college can become a reality for them, that’s the most important part of our work, a college for everybody. It’s a reality for everybody that comes through the doors of early college high school.”
Harlingen Early College High School is in its 11th year of operation.
“Watching that early college as it’s grown, there are a lot of stories of us breaking cycles of poverty, and really giving students the ability to attain their college education, which is their dream,” she said. “And for me, I think, that’s the most important thing, is that they’re leaving there knowing that they had every opportunity to complete a four-year-and-beyond education at the college level. And, it all starts at our early college high school.”
