Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep High School has started to offer a Dual Enrollment program for students to  take community college courses, which are completely online. 

Dual Enrollment is a program offered by a variety of community colleges. The one being offered at Np3 is from American River College.

All of these community college classes are taught by college professors fully online, and students come to class expected to complete work on their Chromebook, while a teacher supervises them on campus at Np3. They meet in an allotted time period like any other class, but work independently on the college’s coursework. 

“The benefits that I’m feeling from ARC is that I’ve come to terms with how I’m going to have to be more independent when it comes to my assignments when I get to college,” said Gabriel Osmena, a senior at Np3.

Tejas Gidda, also a  senior at Np3, expressed similar thoughts about dual enrollment courses.

”I think a benefit would be that students can gain experience with college level classes and earn credit by taking them,” said Gidda. “My overall thoughts would be that taking ARC classes is a massive benefit and I could get college credit early.” 

These benefits were also shared by Mildred Orllena, a senior at Np3. She is attending an ARC class next term, but has taken some previously. 

“I think the benefits of ARC are that you get the experience and exposure to a college class and work,” said Orrlena. She is also happy that ARC classes are being introduced, because of the cost-effectiveness they provide.

“I’m glad that ARC classes are now being introduced to us because it helps us get college classes without having to pay a fee,” said Orrlena. 

While the college experience is beneficial, being fully online can be a negative for some students. “I think that ARC classes can be beneficial because they give students a little bit of a college course experience while also giving them some college credits, though I do think that having everything entirely online does take away from that…the online aspect doesn’t work well for me,” said Tre Salas, a senior at Np3 enrolled in an ARC English and Writing Course.

Students said they believed dual enrollment programs will become more prevalent. 

“I do think dual enrollment programs will become more common in other schools as they are generally very beneficial to students,” said Salas. 

Orrlena added, “I think they will be more common at future schools as it’s a great opportunity to go beyond the usual high school learning,”