SCC Satellite Now In Orbit At Dixon High

SCC Satellite Now In Orbit At Dixon High
By Melissa Murphy/Staff Writer
TheReporter.Com

Dixon high school students can get a jump start on their future with the opening this fall of a Solano Community College satellite campus at the new school.

Starting Oct. 16, the first course in the satellite curriculum - Business Communications - will be offered from 6 to 8:50 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays for two months.

Only the one class is being offered this fall to to get the program going, but for the spring semester seven classes will be offered including, Introduction to Human Biology, Career-Life Planning, Introduction to Criminal Justice, ESL Basic Oral Communication Skills, Principals of Economics, Intermediate Algebra and Elementary Statistics.

The college courses offered at the community college satellite are open to the entire community at $20 for each unit.

High school students, however, will be able to take the courses free with the permission of the principal and their parents.

The students will still have to pay for books and other materials needed for the class.

Students also will be earning dual credit for high school and college.

"It's a great opportunity in your own backyard," said Interim High School Principal Ivan Chaidez, at an assembly for all the juniors and seniors at Dixon High School.

"We're very excited about this. The students will be able to get college experience before their first day at college. It's two for the price of one."

"We can give you the tools you need to get to the top and stay at the top," said Michael Garnier, professor of business at the community college.

"You can earn more than three times those with minimal literacy skills."

High school students who take 12 credits of college study before graduating will have their first semester of college out of the way.

"It helps so much that it is free," said Cristian Camarena, a senior interested in becoming a pediatrician. "I want to have a good job and this will help."

The satellite campus also will help Beatriz Del Toro, who is also a senior.

"I'll be able to get the credits I need to start the nursing program," she said. "I won't mind taking the classes after school, I'll just have to balance it with work."

Courses offered at the Dixon campus will be included in the Solano Community College course catalog in the spring.

Melissa Murphy can be reached at dixon@thereporter.com.