Gateway to College graduated 13 high school students after its first semester of implementation. That’s 13 students who may not have graduated high school and who are even less likely to have gone on to pursue advanced education.

Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Chad Shealy said Gateway to College was started through a collaborative effort with Marvin Moak, administrative dean for Hinds Community College’s Vicksburg-Warren Campus.

“It may have been our first meeting,” he said. “We talked about our effort with the GED program, and we wanted to provide another option for graduation besides a GED.”

It was Moak who suggested Gateway to College, which was a program already implemented in Rankin County, Shealy said.

“We set up a meeting with the Rankin County branch of Hinds Community College, and it was blatantly obvious that it was a good fit for us,” he said. “I’m very glad that Rankin County had theirs in place because they had already been down some of the roads of what worked and what didn’t work.”

The program, though relatively new in the district, has already enjoyed success.

“We opened our first semester when we came back from Christmas,” he said. “That was our first class, and we had 13 graduates.”

There are 10 more students slated to graduate in the first summer semester, which means they will be graduates of the class of 2015.

“What Gateway did was it came in and made them scholarship students in a Hinds program,” he said. “They chose a CTE course of study, and what they began to do was work towards a career and technical certification or a college associates degree. The credits that they earned also applied to high school, so the kids who actually graduated were kids who probably would not have graduated.”

These students who may not have graduated otherwise are now graduating with not only a high school diploma but also marketable skills, Shealy said.

“One particular student not only had no real intent on finishing high school, but they had absolutely no interest in going to college,” he said. “The student is now currently enrolled in college for the summer semester to complete their coursework at Hinds Community College in computer simulation, animation and design.”

The student already had 19 college credits earned by the time they graduated high school, Shealy said.

“Rankin County, their first year, they graduated five students,” he said. “In half a year, we’re going to have graduated 23. This is an incredible program.”

Shealy said this program has opened the doors for students to get more college credits while in school to apply toward a college associates degree too, not just career and technical certifications.

“It’s more than just a gateway for these kids to go to college; it’s a gateway for the things that are coming in our community and in our school district,” he said.

“We’re really excited about it.”