$900,000. That’s how much 18 seniors from Irving ISD’s Singley Academy are collectively saving by earning associate’s degrees through the district’s Early College Start program. The students are as follows:
Associate of Arts
- Bishop Banda
- Jaylene Barrientos
- Nicholas Darson
- Nathaly Grimaldo-Delgado
- Lennyn Hernandez
- Fatima Mumith
- Olivier-John Ndjike Nzia
- Jorge Padilla
- Sheryl Siljan
- Mark Tran
Associate of Science
- Ivory Arreguin
- Thomas Flores Sosa
- Gabriel Hernandez
- Angela Huynh
- Zoha Naeem
- Kathy Nguyen
- Araceli Sanchez
- Kassandra Valdez
The program is in partnership with Dallas College North Lake Campus. Dual-credit classes are taught at the collegiate level, are tuition-free for Irving ISD students and enable students to receive high school and college credit simultaneously.
According to College for all Texans, the average annual tuition of a public four-year college and university is $25,000 per year. With the degrees, students have two years of college under their belts and $50,000 saved.
In addition to the financial savings, the dual-credit program also gives students a head start. And the best news of all – even more students are being afforded this opportunity as the district launched Singley Collegiate Academy last August and a second academy, South Irving Collegiate, is scheduled to open in August 2022.
