With 37 college credits under her belt before she even stepped foot onto Elizabethtown College’s campus this past fall, 18-year-old Summer Hanley is on the fast track toward a bachelor’s degree.

By 2023, she will have earned a diploma in early childhood education, thanks to the time she spent in the dual enrollment program at Montgomery County Community College while attending Pottsgrove High School.

At MCCC, dual enrollment program students 15 years old or older can take courses on campus, at their high school taught by a certified teacher, or online, and earn transferable undergraduate credits. Classes are offered in the evenings, on weekends and during the summer. They’re also available during the day, though students should check with their high schools to see if they can adjust their schedules to fit in college courses.

Hanley began taking classes at MCCC’s Pottstown Campus three years ago, in the fall of her sophomore year, following in the footsteps of her older sister, Brittany Wagner. Brittany earned six credits after taking two dual enrollment courses during her senior year at Pottsgrove. She graduated in 2008 and then attended West Chester University.

Seeing the success her sister had, Hanley knew dual enrollment was a smart decision, but she still had some reservations going in. With a July birthday, Hanley is used to being the youngest student in class, typically, but there were concerns about how much younger she’d be compared to her college classmates.

“I was very nervous even once I started. I was 15 years old. I was really young,” she said. “I know with Montco there are a lot of adults that go there to go back to school. So I was worried I’d be with people my sister’s or parents’ ages in my classes. I’m literally 15. But once I started taking classes, within the first couple weeks I was fine.”

Hanley worked with her guidance counselor at Pottsgrove to pick the 8 a.m. Introduction to Psychology course. In the spring, she took a semester off from MCCC, but the following fall and spring semesters, she took another 8 a.m. class. Then in her senior year she took five courses in the fall and four in the spring.

Hanley credits her professors at Montco who struck the perfect balance of allowing her the freedom to attend high school activities that might have overlapped with her classes, like cheerleading, but also treating her just like every other college student.

“They’re always understanding,” she said

This fall, Hanley took those first steps at Elizabethtown’s campus and was welcomed as a “first year student,” though her credits said she was a sophomore. Despite the pandemic changing the school’s safety protocols, she and about 2,000 other students were allowed to remain on campus.

She said in addition to graduating sooner and the associated savings on tuition, starting as a sophomore offered other benefits too. While all first year students had their fall semester courses selected for them, for the spring semester, Hanley said she was able to choose all of her classes earlier than her freshman counterparts. Likewise, the majority of her classes this spring will be in the education major.

On the whole, Hanley said taking dual enrollment courses at MCCC helped make the transition from high school to college much easier and she hopes others will follow her lead.

“It’s helped me to get integrated to what college will be like,” she said. “Taking those classes allowed me to know what to expect with the classes I’m taking now. It’s nice to know what to expect. Some first year students get a little overwhelmed. High school can be a lot different than college. Montco allowed it to feel like less of a jump.”