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Home > Archive > Apr 17, 2008

SUCCESS for High School Students
By Cami Cox
Staff Writer
With options ever-evolving for parents when it comes to educating their children, another high school experience is being offered locally by the Southern Utah Center for Computer, Engineering and Science Students Academy.
The SUCCESS Academy, an early-college high school, is a state-approved charter school that enables local students to simultaneously earn their high school diplomas and college associate degrees. The program is offered in partnership with the Iron County School District, the Washington County School District, Southern Utah University and Dixie State College.
“It's a great opportunity for students. It's a rigorous early-college program,” SUCCESS Academy principal and CEO, Vickie Wilson, said.
SUCCESS Academy is a unique charter school, said St. George SUCCESS Academy academic advisement counselor Brent Fackrell, because of its partnership with the local school districts. Most charter schools function independently, he said.
“We've had tremendous support from Washington County School District and Dixie State College, as well as SUU and Iron County School District,” Wilson said.
With two Southern Utah campuses – one at SUU in Cedar City and one at DSC in St. George, SUCCESS Academy is a bona fide high school, open to students in the Cedar City, St. George and Hurricane areas.
SUCCESS Academy students spend half of each school day attending college courses at their respective SUCCESS Academy campuses and the other half of each day taking elective classes at their boundary high schools. This is made possible by the partnership with the Iron and Washington County School Districts. Students also participate in sports and extracurricular activities at their boundary high schools, so they have the same social and after-school opportunities as their district high school counterparts.
“It's a great program. It kind of captures the best of all worlds for these kids,” Wilson said.
SUCCESS Academy college courses are taught by adjunct college faculty, with some Internet courses being offered at the Cedar City campus that are overseen by public education facilitators. With the exception of seniors, SUCCESS Academy students do not take college courses with older college students – classes are conducted in on-campus classrooms with their SUCCESS Academy peers.
The SUCCESS Academy coursework is rigorous, Fackrell said, and there is an emphasis on computer, math and science studies, with part of the hope being that SUCCESS Academy students will go on to have careers in those fields.
“The idea is that, hopefully, this will lead to them picking that as a career choice, because our economy and our country needs more kids going into the sciences and the engineering and math fields,” he said.
SUCCESS Academy has six sister schools in northern Utah, and part of the funding for these early-college programs came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, the Jon Huntsman Foundation and the Utah Partnership for Education, according to information from SUCCESS Academy. The school also receives some state and federal funding.
Students attending SUCCESS Academy do not pay college tuition for the courses they take, but they are required to pay for some textbooks and supplies.
In Cedar City, students in grades 9-12 are eligible to enroll in SUCCESS Academy, and in St. George, students in grades 10-12 are eligible. The registration limit is about 50 students per grade at both campuses, Wilson said, and new students are chosen by lottery. Enrollment deadlines for the lotteries occur each February.
When students graduate from SUCCESS Academy, they have the option of walking with their boundary high school graduating classes, though they receive SUCCESS Academy diplomas. If they've successfully earned their associate degrees, students are also invited to walk in the DSC or SUU graduation ceremonies. Students completing their associate degrees with a 3.0 GPA or better are automatically eligible for the New Century Scholarship, which pays 75 percent of their college tuition as they go on to earn advanced degrees, Fackrell said.
The SUCCESS Academy campus in Cedar City has been operating for three years and will graduate its first class of seniors this year. The St. George campus has been functioning for two years. Both are chartered through the Iron County School District.
A variety of students are being educated through SUCCESS Academy, Fackrell said, from athletes and cheerleaders to debate and drama students. The common goal they share is a desire to work hard in their academic pursuits.
“It's a lot of work. It takes a student who's really motivated,” Fackrell said.
For more information about SUCCESS Academy, visit www.successacademyonline.com or call 435-865-8790 for the Cedar City campus and 435-652-7830 for the St. George campus.

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