Since January, Bishop Noll has offered eligible seniors to take college courses on-campus at Purdue Northwest in the afternoon. 

“At Bishop Noll, students have never been able to graduate early, but with this program, they can get an early start on their college career. This will help the student save money in the long run as well as time” said Kevin Smith, college advisor and guidance counselor.

The requirements to be an eligible senior are a 3.2 GPA or higher and fulfill the majority of required courses. Currently the courses being offered range from: speech, Spanish, English, Stats, Social Work, Theatre, Philosophy, Trigonometry, French, and History.

So far most of the students have enjoyed the program and were able to learn a lot aside from just academics. It has given them more freedom to develop time management as they have to know traffic to get to class on time. It also gives them the opportunity to get another credit out of the way and get the real feel of what it’s like to be in college.

“I’ve had to balance five high school classes, one college class (Purdue), and my job,” said senior Eric Copeland. “Therefore, being in this program has helped me develop those useful skills that a lot of people my age and even older contribute to struggle with or haven’t developed yet.” 

More improvements are being made for next year in hopes to expand this program to more students. 

“Not having to be at Purdue on Fridays. Currently we have to go to tour different aspects of the campus, but I will not be attending PNW so it kinda wasted my time,” said senior Aaliyah Crawford.