Charter school student earns NIC degree

SANDPOINT — As far as graduating high school students are concerned, Matisse Lovett has a major head start.

The Forrest M. Bird Charter School student is the school’s first graduating senior to already have an associate’s degree from North Idaho College in the bag at the moment of high school graduation. Since Matisse’s goal is to become a doctor, that amounts to a major time-saving detour on the road to a career.

“I’d definitely encourage other students to take the same approach as me,” she said. “It’s not nearly as difficult as you might think.”

Sure enough, more and more students will likely follow Matisse’s example in the coming years as dual-enrollment classes become more and more easy to facilitate, according to charter school administrators. Matisse, on the other hand, invested her fair share of effort to earn a high school diploma in one hand and a college degree in the other.

“Matisse is a special case, because she started so early,” teacher Mary Jensen said.

The process started in earnest her second year of high school, when teachers and counselors encouraged her to take dual enrollment classes that could cover the essentials of a college education.

Compared to her senior year of school, the dual enrollment process started out fairly simply. She was able to take most of her classes at the local NIC outreach center. Even so, the combination of high school and college courses presented its share of difficulties.

“The high school uses an A day/B day system, but the college just uses a weekly system, so that would create conflicts sometimes,” Matisse said.

The situation complicated in her senior year. Because most of her classes had to be taken in Coeur d’Alene — especially science classes, which were unavailable in Sandpoint due to the lack of a wet lab — Matisse had a choice to make. She could either deal with the tedium of a daily commute, or she could temporarily move.

Fortunately, her mother agreed to rent an apartment in Coeur d’Alene, which they used to avoid the costly drives and allow Matisse to focus on her studies. She also helped her daughter with her homework, no matter the time of day.

“Mom was very supportive throughout all of this,” Matisse said. “She always helped me, even when I was banging on her door at 1 a.m. saying ‘Mom, I have to turn this in tomorrow!’”

Fortunately, the outlook appears good for other students putting away college credits early, and they probably won’t have to jump through as many hoops to do so. For one thing, the NIC Sandpoint campus is installing a wet lab that will be ready for fall students, which will allow students to earn associate’s degrees without leaving Sandpoint.

In addition, the state has recently passed laws that take a friendlier stance to dual enrollment. Students can now earn equal college and high school credit for their efforts, which makes a big difference in accelerating an education. It’s also significantly more affordable to earn those credits as a high school student.

“I know that most of our students are taking advantage of this,” Jensen said. “I think it’s wonderful.”