BVSD graduating seniors receive year of free community college through ASCENT

May 18—Broomfield High graduating senior Isabella Osborne is headed to Front Range Community College in the fall with her first year of tuition covered.

She's one of 44 Boulder Valley graduating seniors who plan to participate in the state's ASCENT — Accelerating Students through Concurrent Enrollment — program. Through the program, Boulder Valley pays the tuition for a year of community college at either Front Range or Metro State Denver.

"One of my goals for higher education is to come out of it with as little debt as possible," Osborne said. "Not having college debt be a barrier in the future is really important to me. It takes away a lot of stress."

As seniors from most Boulder Valley high schools prepare to graduate this weekend, the school district is hoping to see more students take advantage of concurrent enrollment options like ASCENT as part its Grad Plus plan.

Seniors who enroll in ASCENT walk with their class at graduation, but remain a Boulder Valley student for a fifth year to take concurrent enrollment classes. To qualify for ASCENT, students must meet all their high school graduation requirements and have earned nine credit hours in college-level courses before the end of their senior year.

Last school year, four Boulder Valley students joined the program. This school year, the state removed a district-level cap on the number of students who could participate, allowing school counselors to recruit more students.

Osborne, at Broomfield High, said qualifying for the ASCENT program takes some of the pressure off, allowing her to take a year to choose a major. She's deciding between environmental science and business, with plans to minor in whichever one she doesn't choose as her major.

"I can explore which one I like most," she said.

She qualified for ASCENT by earning college credit through AP classes, including U.S. history and environmental science, and taking an English class through a pre-collegiate program at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Her interest in business and entrepreneurship stems from helping with the business side of her band, Ipecac. She's the lead singer in the alternative rock band, which has found success as part of the Denver music scene in the last couple of years. Ipecac also was voted as the 2022 Readers' Choice for best new band in Denver's Westword.

She said high school graduation is bittersweet, especially after missing so many experiences during the pandemic. She was involved with theater as a freshman, but focused on Ipecac when restrictions made theater participation difficult. Not having to worry about paying for her first year at Front Range, she said, allows her to focus her energy on school and the band.

"I'm really looking forward to getting started and finding my independence and figuring out my place in the world," she said.

Another graduating senior who signed up for Ascent is Boulder High's Hector Abril. He plans to attend Front Range for two years, then transfer to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

"It's such a good opportunity, I couldn't pass on it," he said. "I can save up for the rest of the years of college."

He said pandemic restrictions pushed him to focus on school instead of sports.

"I knew that education was more important than possibly getting on the varsity team," he said. "It made me really dedicate my time to being a student."

He earned the college credits to qualify for ASCENT through an AP U.S. history class and a college-level video production class offered at Boulder TEC. He's looking into a career that involves making music for movies.

"I'll always be grateful for all the memories I made in high school, but I'm super excited to be done with it," he said. "I can really make more of a new start for myself."

Andrea Montiel, who is graduating from Lafayette's Centaurus High School, earned her college credits to qualify for the program by taking a criminology and criminal justice classes at Boulder TEC. She's planning to continue studying criminology at Metro State, with a goal of becoming a crime scene investigation specialist.

"ASCENT really provided me with a great opportunity," she said. "I'm happy with all of the hard work I did in school so I could do this."

She said she chose criminology because it's something she's passionate about.

"It won't feel like a job," she said. "It will make me eager to go to work every single day."

Outside of her classes, she is part of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office cadet program, worked on bringing an ethnic studies class to Centaurus as part of CU Boulder's Public Achievement program, and is a member of the Lafayette Youth Advisory Commission.

With the Lafayette Youth Advisory Commission, she helped plan — and spoke at — the city's annual Martin Luther King Junior Day marches, along with working on a project to share what it's like for people of color living in Lafayette.

While she said she's sad to leave friends and the comfort of high school, she's ready for new experiences.

"I'm thrilled that I get to live a new life in college," she said.