Tennessee Valley Early College at CSCC is now official!

Holly Vincent
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 11:25 AM
Academics, All

The Tennessee Valley Early College (TVEC) at Cleveland State got its start recently with the Cleveland City School Board approving their participation in the program.
TVEC is a partnership between the college and local school systems designed to allow students to pursue an associate degree at the same time they are earning a high school diploma.
“This started because we built it into our Cleveland State 2020 Community First Plan,” stated Dr. Bill Seymour, CSCC President. “This is something we have been planning for the past year. We saw this as a great opportunity to expand our service to the community. These types of programs have been growing across the country and there are others in Tennessee, but it fits in perfectly with the Drive to 55 by helping individuals to get a college degree. It also helps with completion and it fits with the Complete College agenda.”
The goal of the TVEC is achieved by engaging students in a rigorous high school curriculum tied to the incentive of earning college credit during their freshman and sophomore years and taking traditional college courses on CSCC’s campus during their junior and senior years.
Cleveland High School (CHS) was the first school interested in this special academy administered by CSCC. A model was developed that worked specifically for CHS, but it was also a model that was in the best interest of CSCC, as well. Rising freshmen will have the opportunity to apply for the program.
“This was a true collaboration; it fit their needs, but it also allows us to create a model that we can replicate for other institutions,” stated Seymour.
At the present time, CSCC has also had preliminary meetings with both Bradley and McMinn County Schools. Seymour said he is hopeful these will result in their participation in the future, as well as other high schools in the CSCC service area.
Seymour continued, “We had an amazing team of faculty, deans and administrators working on this project who collaborated with Cleveland High School in a very condensed time frame. I thank them all for their dedication to this effort. While these students will not enroll until August, I feel this is another key objective in our strategic plan that we are accomplishing. The addition of these programs will help us to achieve our enrollment goals.”
Because it has always been in the intention of CSCC to offer these programs to its service area, Cleveland State President Bill Seymour chose the name Tennessee Valley Early College so it could relate to any of the high schools CSCC serves.
“Not only does it meet a goal within our strategic plan, the best part is that it provides additional opportunities for students in our service area to complete an associate’s degree and do it early.”
Interested rising freshmen at CHS should contact their guidance counselors for more information. All other inquiries for the TVEC at CSCC should be directed to Robert Brandon at brandon01@clevelandstatecc.edu or Susan Webb-Curtis at scurtis@clevelandstatecc.edu.