Angelus News | September 6, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 18

Students from St. Paul High School
and Sacred Heart High School are
guided through a biology lab experiment
at Loyola Marymount University
as part of Early College Network
coursework. | EDGAR SALMINGO
LA Catholic high
schools already pride
themselves on highachieving
education,
but a college program
is taking them to new
heights.
BY GREG HARDESTY
Ava Ines was apprehensive about
taking a college class online.
The summer before her first
year of high school, she took an online
course, “Global History to the Year
1500,” from Arizona State University
(ASU) as a participant in the Early
College Network (ECN), a program
launched by the LA Archdiocese’s
Department of Catholic Schools.
After a couple of weeks, Ines got the
HIGHER LEARNING
hang of the class.
“I really enjoyed the lessons and
discussions,” said Ines, now a sophomore
at St. Joseph High School in
Lakewood, whose dream job is to work
for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena. “I’m truly grateful that there’s
such a program that allows me to have
a sneak peek into college.
“The experience has been so valuable
to me because it is slowly preparing me
for my future after high school.”
Launched in 2020 with initial partner
ASU — and expanded to include Seton
Hill, a four-year Catholic university in
Pennsylvania — the ECN is expected
to phase in four more high schools this
academic year, expanding to 15 from
11 last year.
Nearly 1,000 students in the archdiocese
are expected to take part in the
ECN this year, said Edgar Salmingo Jr.,
director of Early College and Online
Learning for the Department of Catholic
Schools.
The ECN was made possible by a
grant from the Conrad N. Hilton and
Dan Murphy foundations — funding
that covers course fees. In addition, students
in the ECN taking ASU courses
also earn an annual high school scholarship
through the Hilton Foundation.
Although many public high schools
and various Catholic high schools have
entered partnerships to allow students
to take college classes while still in high
school, most of them are with community
colleges and not four-year universities,
Salmingo said.
The ECN program is designed to enhance
high school transcripts, build the
confidence of high school students to
take college-level courses, and reduce
their overall college costs.
“I’m not aware of any other diocese or
archdiocese that has a formal, systemwide
program like this,” Salmingo said.
Students in the ECN, which targets
low-income, historically ethnically
underrepresented, and first-generation
prospective college students, can earn
credit in math, science, English, social
14 • ANGELUS • September 6, 2024