Building a Future in Aagriculture: Anderson has Success with PTC Dual Enrollment

Earning college credit while still in high school isn’t the only benefit Madison Anderson has experienced by taking Dual Enrollment courses through Piedmont Technical College.

“It’s given me a lot of confidence and new skills,” she said. “It helped me as a student as well as a person.”

Dual Enrollment is an advanced-credit program for high school juniors and seniors. Different classes are available online, at the student’s high school, or on the PTC campus. Dual Enrollment comes with a range of options. Some students are planning for advanced degrees. Others are seeking a credential that will allow them to begin a professional career as soon as they leave high school.

A recent graduate of Strom Thurmond High Schoolin Edgefield County, Anderson is going to earn her associate degree in diversified agriculture this fall. She already has a job lined up at a ranch in Wyoming and wants to eventually go back to school for a degree in agriculture business.

“I would love to start my own horse-training business, or maybe manage a ranch,” said Anderson, who also worked as a horse-training assistant in the equestrian hotbed of Aiken while in high school.

Anderson started Dual Enrollment during the second semester of her junior year. She had already accumulated the credits she needed to graduate from high school. Jeremy Brooks, her former agriculture teacher at Strom Thurmond and now an instructor at PTC, encouraged her to try the program.

“She’s very hard working and very academic minded,” Brooks said. “She’s very dedicated to whatever we’re working on, and she likes helping other students.”

There are four ways to participate in Dual Enrollment at PTC:

Anderson opted for Middle College, starting with online classes and then taking agriculture courses at PTC’s Saluda County Campus.

“I absolutely loved it,” Anderson said. “I loved how hands-on it was.”

Piedmont Technical College offers more than 80 courses approved to transfer to any senior public institution in the state by the S.C. Commission of Higher Education. Course offerings are determined by your area of study. Anderson’s classes included animal science, landscaping and welding, as well as general education classes.

Students earn both high school and college credit in PTC’s Dual Enrollment classes. Unlike other programs in which college credits depend on high-stakes testing, Dual Enrollment students can be sure their work will count toward their studies when they’re ready to apply to college.

“I would get credit for my Dual Enrollment classes, and I was acing them, so it’s definitely a GPA booster,” Anderson said. “My family thought it was pretty cool that I would almost have my associate finished before I graduated high school.”

Dual Enrollment at PTC is designed to be affordable to all students. South Carolina residents attend tuition-free if they take at least 6 credit hours per semester (generally at least two classes) at their high school, on campus or online. Plus, students who take college courses while still in high school can show admissions officers how serious they are.

“Now I’m getting scholarship offers because I have the credits,” Anderson said. She said it’s not only helped her college finances and boosted her career prospects, but also helped her learn how to think.

Dual Enrollment is available at high schools throughout the PTC footprint. Hundreds of high school and home school students all over the region are already taking advantage of the program to jump-start their college careers.

Students should talk with a high school guidance counselor if they think Dual Enrollment might be right for them. Learn more online at www.ptc.edu/dual or contact PTC’s Dual Enrollment Office at (864) 941-8315.