Readiness grant helps students in Akron Early College High School

The University of Akron has received its second year of funding from a College Readiness and Access two-year grant from the Ohio Board of Regents for its pioneering Akron Early College High School. AECHS will welcome 104 freshmen to the UA campus on Aug. 19 for the 2015-16 school year.

“The grant was designed to help UA assist in preparing our AECHS students to be college ready, provide academic advising to each student on an individual basis, and provide additional wrap-around services,” explains Kelly Herold, assistant dean of UA’s College of Applied Science and Technology. Herold attributes the personalized advising in helping AECHS achieve a 90 percent associate degree graduation rate at the time of high school graduation.

A joint program that began in 2007 between UA and Akron Public Schools (APS), AECHS is geared to students in low-income families who have not traditionally sought higher education. It allows promising APS students to advance to an academically rigorous program upon their completion of middle school. AECHS also enables students to earn an associate degree or up to two years of college credits toward a bachelor’s degree, free of charge.

Classes, mostly held in the Polsky Building on UA’s main campus, are taught by a combination of high school teachers and UA professors.

Media contact: Lisa Craig, 330-972-7429 or lmc91@uakron.edu.