Graduating high school as a college sophomore? McHenry’s dual credit program with MCC makes it possible

When Milo Lischewski enters college next year, he will not be a typical freshman.

With the AP courses he has successfully completed and the dual credit courses he’s taken, the 17-year-old McHenry High School senior will graduate next spring with about 40 college credits from McHenry County College.

That means Lischewski would enter any Illinois college as about a second-semester sophomore, said Carl Vallianatos, McHenry High School District 156 assistant superintendent for learning and innovation.

“It depends on what he decides to do,” Vallianatos said. Out-of-state universities might not accept his community college credits but would accept the AP courses. Any Illinois school must accept all of the credits.

Earning college credits while still in high school has been a national and regional focus in the last five or so years, and a priority at McHenry High School for the past three, Vallianatos said. The district now offers 19 different courses that, with the help of MCC, allow its students to earn college credits. Those credits, however, are not free. Students pay $25 per course.

Those fees are now being covered via a $20,000 grant from the McHenry Rotary Club. The club has said it plans to continue the funding going forward, although the amount may change based on fundraising.

In comparison, credits at a state school like Northern Illinois University in DeKalb now run about $360.80 per credit hour. At MCC, in-district students are now paying $121.50 per credit hour.

Vallianatos expects 700 to 800 students to take advantage of the dual credit program each year.

Lischewski currently is taking Manufacturing II, equivalent to the Manual Machining course at MCC. It earns him one credit toward his high school graduation, and three college credits. He also has taken three years of engineering classes in high school. What he will do with those courses “is still something I am putting thought into,” Lischewski said.

His dad is a plastics engineer, and the field is broad.

“It will be something to do with industry,” Lischewski said of his college and career plans.

The dual credit courses now available at McHenry High offer a range for students, whether they are looking at four-year or tech schools, from general education courses like a language class or U.S. history to tech-focused classes like metals.

“It gives a head start to a student who never really saw college as an option. It is a foot in the door for them.”

—  Ross Foley, McHenry High School manufacturing instructor

The manufacturing classes offer dual credit, but they also offer real-world skills, Nolan Rotundo said. The 17-year-old senior has been working after school at Scot Forge in Spring Grove for almost a year. He connected with the metal part manufacturer last year during the school’s manufacturing trades expo.

“It is hands-on,” Rotundo said of the experience he’s getting in class. This year, he’s using some of the same machines at Scot Forge that he’s learning on at McHenry High.

He’s also decided that manufacturing is something he probably will stick with.

“I like seeing the progress I have made” working on one piece until completion,” he said.

Instructor Ross Foley said his manufacturing students will work on one piece for the semester. They will then enter their parts into the the Technical Manufacturing Association’s annual competition.

“We try to simulate the real world as much as possible,” he said, adding some of the machining tools are high-tech, while others are presses built decades ago but still used by manufacturers.

Students are also designing their parts – something that may give them a leg up when searching for jobs in the field.

“Their resumes look really good to start with,” Foley said. “It gives a head start to a student who never really saw college as an option. It is a foot in the door for them.”