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When she was in 7th grade, Tatiana Aparicio “swore up and down” that she wouldn’t enroll in an early college high school or take dual enrollment classes.
Aparicio first learned of such programs, which allow high school students to take college courses tuition-free, from her cousin, who was a dual-enrollment student in Georgia. But her parents didn’t go to college, and she didn’t know much about the options available in Durham. She worried she would struggle with the coursework.
She changed her mind after learning more about the programs later in middle school. Now, Aparicio is a sophomore at the Durham Early College of Health Sciences, which opened in 2024 and is a partnership between Durham Public Schools, Durham Technical Community College, and Duke Health.
After graduation, she plans to apply the college credit she’s earning to further studies at a university with the goal of becoming a registered nurse. Doing so, Aparicio hopes, will allow her to support herself and her parents.
“Success for me would be being able to see them happy and actually have a career where I can help them out financially,” Aparicio told a crowd of about 100 on Wednesday night at The Assembly’s Newsmakers event, which focused on how community colleges are supporting students’ economic mobility in the Triangle. United Way of the Greater Triangle sponsored the gathering, which included two additional student speakers who have taken dual enrollment courses at Durham Tech: Akirah Ankum, a senior at Durham Charter School, and Shirley Mendez, a graduate of Jordan High School.
There’s evidence that Aparicio’s goal could pan out. A March report from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction found that students who take dual enrollment courses tend to make higher wages than their counterparts who don’t. And with nearly 100,000 students in the state participating in dual enrollment programs, Aparicio is far from the only North Carolina student who could benefit from increasing coordination between high schools, community colleges, and universities.
There are three pathways of dual enrollment: college transfer, which sets students up to continue their education at a two- or four-year college; career and technical education, in which students earn a certification for specific jobs; and early colleges, which are housed on college campuses and tend to focus on a specific industry, like health care.
Scott Ralls, president of Wake Technical Community College, said dual enrollment provides a “real connection point” to economic mobility for low-income and first-generation students because it allows them to see that they are capable of going to college and succeeding. That’s compounded by the courses, which are free and reduce the cost of college for students who transfer their credits to a four-year university, he said.
“They see they can do it, and there’s a way for them to get there and to afford it, as well,” Ralls said.
Oluwunmi Ariyo, director of college recruitment and high school partnerships at Durham Tech, works with students in Durham Public Schools, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, and Orange County Schools. She said her team tries to convey to students the range of possibilities that dual enrollment can provide them. While some students might just take one or two courses to replace high school classes, Ariyo encourages them to “really complete something” and graduate with an associate’s degree or another type of credential.
“We really want them to have something attainable when they leave high school,” she said.
Still, there is more work to be done to ensure those students enroll in the programs. Ralls said most of Wake Tech’s dual-enrolled students come “from the high schools where the students are most likely to go to college.” That means the college needs to extend its outreach to lower-income high schools where the college-going rate is likely to be lower, he said.
Ariyo acknowledged some barriers exist, like course fees and textbooks that are not included in the free tuition. Aparicio and Ankum said that they felt dual enrollment programs sometimes feel “hidden” and that high schools could do a better job of informing students about them. Ariyo said her team tries to meet students and parents in their communities to spread the word.
For Mendez’s mother, the choice was clear. “She’s always wanted better for me,” said Mendez, who is also a first-generation college student. “When she found out that I was going to do dual enrollment, she thought that that was really good for me, to be able to get a start at that and to be able to get a feel of what college is.”
