Auburn High and Peru State College Have Partnered to Provide Full-Ride Scholarships to High Ability Learning Students Achieving Gold Status
by Tony Johnson (Originally printed in the Nemaha County Herald on May 10, 2007)
August 12, 2007
Auburn Public Schools and Peru State College have entered into an agreement to offer full-ride scholarships to High Ability Learning (HAL) students who complete the gold level of the Principal's Achievement Challenge (PAC).
There are three levels to the PAC: Gold, Silver and Bronze. As an incentive for students to strive for the gold level, Auburn Public Schools has partnered with Peru State College to guarantee a full-ride scholarship to any student who successfully completes the Gold Level.
Students who accept the challenge will know that if they can meet the demands of the HAL course work, they have a fullride scholarship waiting for them at Peru State College.
The PAC will become the cornerstone of the HAL Program at Auburn High School. Starting with the next year's freshman class. Students who have been selected as qualifying for HAL will be introduced to the program. Each students, with their parents, will meet with Kevin Reiman, the High School Principal, and Kathy Bucy, Guidance
Counselor, to select the level of achievement that will work best for them during their high school career.
The achievement levels are designed to push the students to achieve at their highest levels. It is also designed to have students experience "real world” situations through a career-college emphasis.
"This is a unique partnership with Peru State College,” said Reiman. "One that I hope we can continue to expand. Not only will this give our students a goal to strive for, but hopefully it will keep some of our best and brightest students right here in Nemaha County.”
Partnering With Peru State
The HAL program has been in place at Auburn High School for a few years, but it was severely limited in its scope.
Before Kevin Reiman developed the new Level Based Learning system, students identified as High Ability Learners did not have a unique outlet at a district level to expand their educational horizons.
HAL coursework has previously been laid out for the students by individual teachers, which means that it was up to the faculty target the HAL students and expand their own coursework in the classroom.
"With the new level program, we are pushing the students to participate at a higher level with their academic careers,” said Reiman.
The new HAL program was developed by Reiman after a meeting of parents, administrators, board members, identified a need for expanding the HAL program.
With the newly created Level System of HAL, Reiman thought that the students identified as High Ability Learners should have extra incentive to strive for excellence, which is why he contacted Micki Willis, Director of Admissions and Recruitment at Peru State College. According to Willis, this is the first time that Peru State College has partnered with Auburn High School for a scholarship-type program.
HAL Criteria and College/Career Focus
HAL students are identified in their mid-elementary years, and once they are in the program, they are never taken out, even if their test scores drop a little bit.
There are many criteria for the program, but to get admittance into HAL, points are assigned to each criteria, and teacher recommendations and test scores weigh heavily on the final decisions.
Since next year's freshmen will be the first ones introduced to the new Level Based HAL program, it will take until about their Junior year before the career based curriculum can be introduced.
Reiman said that after their Sophomore year, the HAL students will have the opportunity to identify their career based interests. They will then be partnered with like-minded business people who will be shadowed by the HAL students throughout the year.
Another area of interest for the HAL students is the opportunity to take college-level coursework. From the comfort of an office chair, the students can take online classes that appeal to their interests. For those who may not be able to afford the tuition of online classes, District #29 has a general fund that will assist students with a 3.5 GPA or higher pay for the class if they could not otherwise gather the funds necessary for online tuition.
HAL Requirements
While all students in all levels are required to have a heavier workload while participating in the HAL program, Gold Level students will be required to meet much more strict criteria since their success will lead to an optional, full paid for education at Peru State College.
Gold Level students will have to take 5 years of math, 4 years of science, 4 of English, 3.5 of social studies, 3 of a foreign language, at least 4 years of advanced placement courses and at least 2 online courses.
Silver and Bronze Level HAL students must take the same level of courses, but will not have to take as many. In fact, while Bronze Level students must have at least 40 hours and Silver Level students must have at least 60 hours of school lservice upon graduation, Gold Level students must have 80 hours.
Also, the GPA requirements are quite different. To be guaranteed the full-ride scholarship to PSC, Gold Level students must maintain an overall GPA of 3.5, while Bronze Level students must have a 3.0 and Silver Level students must have a 3.33.
All three levels have a fine arts, nuclear/science, education, business, government and technology career/college emphasis, but students at different levels must present different types of portfolios to complete their level of HAL. Bronze students must simply submit a portfolio, while Silver Level students must submit as well as present to selected faculty.
Gold Level students must submit a portfolio and present it to selected faculty, the District #29 Board of Education and selected PSC faculty.
Once all criteria have been met, the AHS students in the Gold Level of HAL will receive their fullride scholarship to Peru State College
