Spectrum News | Marist-NFA partnership allows students to earn college credits

Watch the full story on Spectrum News by clicking this link. 

Spectrum News recently visited some of our high school classes at NFA Main Campus to learn about the NECSD Marist Early College High School (ECHS) program. NFA senior, MIchelle Jiang and NFA alumnus Jared Kerin were interviewed for the story. The ECHS program is a unique pathway to college, working in partnership with Marist’s School of Computer Science and Mathematics to equip students with a Regents diploma and up to 26 college credits toward a college degree. Building on the success of the first four years, the program has recently been renewed for another five years through a grant from the New York State Department of Education.

Newburgh’s ECHS program engages a new cohort of 30 high school students each year to complete a sequence of Marist college-level courses during their four years of high school. Courses in the sequence are taught by Marist approved NFA teachers during the academic calendar year at NFA and instructed by Marist instructors from the School of Computer Science and Mathematics during the summer at Marist College. The initiative includes three-week long summer computer science courses at Marist, along with enrichment activities with exposure to Marist campus life, the Marist/IBM Joint Study program, and a day at IBM in Poughkeepsie, to provide a college experience, mentoring and career exploration on site.

For more than 50 years, Marist College has worked with the Newburgh Enlarged City School District to expand access to higher education through its historic Upward Bound Program, and in recent years the Newburgh Armory Unity Center (NAUC). Since 2014, Marist has partnered with NAUC to invest in an education pipeline toward higher education, which includes direct support of computer science programming in local youth through the donation of computer equipment and staff and student volunteerism. Among the many students enrolled in the ECHS program are eleven NAUC alumni, many of whom worked on Armory computers donated by Marist College.

Students in 8th grade can apply for the NECSD Marist ECHS program at the time of high school selection in the spring. 

ATTENTION: Are your scholars or colleagues doing something great? Please contact the district Communications Team at communications@necsd.net. We’d love to visit your class or event and/or post your pictures and recap to highlight the amazing accomplishments throughout our district!