BLACK HAWK COLLEGE FOUNDATION, GIFT FOUNDATION CREATE NEW SCHOLARSHIP

Goal is to help Geneseo High School students hit the ground running when they get to college

A new $500 scholarship funded by the Black Hawk College Foundation and Geneseo’s GIFT Foundation (Geneseo Is For Tomorrow) will give one Geneseo student’s college career a kick-start. The new dual enrollment program, recently implemented at the high school, allows students to take classes that qualify for both high school credit and college credit.

“Classes are taken through video conferencing, taught by college faculty on the high school campus or taught by a Geneseo high school teacher who is qualified to teach college level courses,” says Keith Miller, president of Black Hawk College.

“Advanced Placement (AP) courses allow a student to take higher level courses in high school with the hopes of getting college credit, based on how they score on the test once they get to college,” continues Miller. “That credit, assuming the college or university accepts AP, may not be awarded for the course for which it was intended.” Miller goes on to explain that if a student took an AP English course, the college my give them the AP credit, but as an elective rather than the college level English course.

“ With dual enrollment the ‘maybe’ is taken out of the equation,” says Miller. “The student gets college credit for the classes taken under the dual enrollment program. As a result some students may graduate from high school with a full year of college credit on their transcript.”

“One of the goals of the dual enrollment program is to make higher education attainable by more of our students,” says Brett Lohman. Lohman is on the board of directors of both foundations and has been involved with the formation of the scholarship from the beginning. “Just think about a student graduating from high school with a full year of college credit. That
cuts a full year’s expenses from their college costs. When you consider you are saving room, board, expenses and tuition for a full year, all of a sudden we may be putting a college education in the grasp of a student who might not have considered going because they thought the cost was not within their reach.”

The dual credit courses are true college level courses in every aspect. Everything applies as if the course was offered on the college campus. The Illinois Board of Higher Education, which governs all colleges and universities in the state, dictates that any general education course, which dual enrollment classes are, will be accepted at the Illinois college or university, assuming the student passes the course with a grade of C or better. Dual enrollment courses are accepted at all Illinois colleges and universities under the regulation of the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

Students can sign up for the Black Hawk Foundation/GIFT Foundation scholarship by picking up an application at the school’s guidance office or going to the GIFT Foundation’s Web site, geneseogift.org.

Geneseo schools superintendent Scott Kuffel, right, and Black Hawk College President Keith Miller,
left, discuss the dual enrollment program and the $500 scholarship available to one Geneseo High
School student as Black Hawk College Foundation president and GIFT Foundation’s Brett Lohman looks on.

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