MIDDLEBURY-The J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation and the Community College of Vermont (CCV) recently announced an extension of the Free Degree Promise to include Vermont's high school classes of 2027 and 2028.
The extension ensures that current 10th and 11th graders will have the opportunity to complete a free CCV associate degree of their choosing just one year after high school graduation, a benefit first offered to the classes of 2023 through 2026.
Since launching in 2022, the Free Degree Promise has helped hundreds of young Vermonters pursue fast-tracked, debt-free degrees. Students on this pathway are graduating at twice the rate and in half the time as community college students nationally.
At a time when Vermont's high school graduation and college continuation rates are the lowest in New England, particularly for underrepresented student groups, the Free Degree Promise builds on the success of state programs like Early College and the 802 Opportunity Grant to help young Vermonters complete high school and continue their career-connected learning.
"Extending the Free Degree Promise will keep more doors to opportunity open for young Vermonters while giving us a longer runway to refine the model, analyze what's working, and share what we're learning with the state," said CCV President Joyce Judy in a news release.
The state's longtime Early College Program (ECP) lets eligible high school seniors take a full year of college courses tuition-free while completing their high school diploma.
Students who successfully complete ECP at CCV can then continue through the Free Degree Promise, earning their free associate degree within five additional semesters and with the benefit of enhanced advising and stipends for expenses such as transportation and textbooks.
Since the program's launch, CCV has seen triple the number of low-income students enrolling in ECP and triple the number of people completing ECP persist toward a CCV degree.
"Accelerated degree pathways like the Free Degree Promise are a workforce strategy that is truly a win" for young people in our state, said Vermont Department of Labor Commissioner Kendal Smith.
This past June, more than 70 Free Degree Promise graduates - representing 13 Vermont counties and including nearly half who were first-generation college students - earned their associate degrees, on average just one year after high school. Twenty-five percent earned degrees in health care and behavioral science, 14% in business, and 17% in STEM, environmental science, and information technology.
It was the flexible schedule and debt-free guarantee that helped Jada Unruh from Vernon make the decision to dip her toe into college. "At first, I didn't think I wanted to go to college because I didn't want to go into debt," said Unruh, who balanced coursework with training as a junior firefighter and working full time at a local nursing home.
"I was never going to go to college. That was never the plan. And then I saw that CCV had options to be completely online, which allows me to work full-time while being a student full-time. Early College has allowed me to get a college education that I didn't want [at first], in an accessible way that helped me to feel comfortable doing it."
The McClure Foundation is a 30-year affiliate of the Vermont Community Foundation which works to close the opportunity gap and strengthen rural communities by expanding access to postsecondary education and training opportunities, particularly for young Vermonters. Visit mcclurevt.org/freedegree to learn more. More information about the Free Degree Promise can be found at ccv.edu/freedegree.
This Town and Village item was submitted to The Commons.