On last week’s Up-Close Show, host Gary Daigneault spoke with Copper Mountain College Superintendent President Darren Otten about CMC and MUSD’s partnership with their Dual Enrollment Program, which offers high school students a large leap forward into their future.
Copper Mountain College’s close cooperation with MUSD could be described as “synergetic”: two sources working in harmony to create an enhanced effect for the Morongo Basin student. CMC President Darren Otten spoke to Daigneault about the Dual Enrollment Program, where an MUSD high school student can take college level courses to gain credits toward both a high school diploma and towards a college degree:
“What we’ll be launching here in the fall of 24 in partnership with MUSD is an Early College Initiative, which will start with cohorts of 20 students at each of the high schools scaling each year adding an extra cohort of another 20, in which ultimately our long-term goal is that on the day a student graduates from a Morongo Unified high school, they’ll also graduate CMC with an associate degree.”
MUSD Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services Amy Woods called in to the program to offer statistical testimony to Otten and his leadership.
“Right about when Dr. Otten came in, we had maybe 150-175 students that were in Dual Enrollment, and this year we have 701. It’s a huge jump and that’s due to Copper Mountain’s willingness to expand the model, doing some in person and some Zoom, that allows all our students at both high schools to take the same course at the same time, so there is more equity with our students.”
Otten cited valedictorian Harmony Hill, who graduated from MUSD and CMC on the same day last year, then reminded us of one of the biggest benefits to parents through this program:
“And the dollars that are saved! The fact that at 18-19 years old that you can be done with an associate degree and at a minimum general education, then just have one more year to go, it’s pretty amazing.”
