Claremont
Pathway2Success, recently approved by the New Hampshire Community College System Board of Trustees for River Valley Community College, will be explained on May 9 to eighth-graders and their parents at a forum at the college.
“This will provide an opportunity to some students who may never have considered college,” said Ali Rafieymehr, River Valley Community College’s interim president and VP of academic affairs, citing one of several reasons why he is bringing the program to the college.
It also will help address a critical need for information technology graduates around the state, and hopefully introduce more female students to the STEM fields, Rafieymehr added.
“The state is in need of technology graduates,” Rafieymehr said.
Students chosen for the program who complete it successfully will be just six courses shy of an associate of science degree in information technology, which they can complete at RVCC when they graduate from Stevens or Newport.
From there, they can go into the workforce or transfer the credits to a four-year institution and earn a bachelor’s degree in two more years. Enrolled students could take courses over the summer during their high school years and actually graduate with an associate degree, Rafieymehr said.
The college has been working with high school administrators to “map out” scheduling so students can fulfill some of their high school course requirements in courses where they also are earning college credits, said Christine Downing, curriculum specialist at Stevens.
“We know we can fulfill math, English, electives and the information, computer and technology credits,” Downing said. “We are very confident we can make it work.”
The public forum on May 9, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., will give parents and students an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about how both curriculums are going to be mixed.
“This will give us a much better sense how many students are interested,” Downing said.
Students enrolled in Pathway2Success will be able to earn the 27 high school credits needed to graduate with a “diploma with distinction,” as opposed to diplomas requiring either 20 or 23 credits.
“It is not easy,” Rafieymehr said. “It requires commitment. But if you make the commitment, you will be successful.”
There will be 20 openings the first year: 15 for Stevens students and five for Newport. The college will conduct student interviews and select the students, Downing said.
The four-year program includes 12 courses and an internship. Students take four college courses during their freshman and sophomore years, one per semester, and two courses per semester during their junior and senior years, plus an internship.
Rafieymehr said that at a discounted rate of $300 for each course, the cost for 20 students over four years is around $75,000. He is personally donating $10,000 and another $40,000 has been pledged by John Ring, a 1964 Stevens graduate who previously donated $20,000 for equipment for the new Stevens weight room and $5,000 for starting blocks at the community center pool.
Rafieymehr said he is confident he can raise the balance of the tuition costs through other donations.
Rafieymehr said he created a similar, but smaller version, of the program when he worked for Manchester’s Dyn Inc, where 11 high school juniors took computer science courses at Manchester Community College.
“We need to get students into college courses much sooner,” Rafieymehr said. “This will give them exposure to college while they are in high school.”
In a related program, the college is offering a computer science course for area high school students from mid-June to mid-August for $300. Students who successfully complete this course will earn four college credits, which are accepted by RVCC and many other colleges. Rafieymehr will teach the course.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
