ACCESS AND SUCCESS FOR STUDENTS
The dual credit program at CLC brings higher education within reach by enabling high school students to enroll in college-level courses and earn college credits—free. Jessica Vazquez was the first in her family to go to college—thanks to CLC’s dual credit program, a life-changing resource that is closing the opportunity gap for more than 1,000 high-school students each year. To Vazquez—born in Waukegan to immigrant parents employed
A Bridge to Higher Education as maintenance workers—college seemed like a distant dream. It wasn’t a path anyone in her family had taken before, and the
barriers sometimes seemed insurmountable.
That all began to change in 2014 when the Waukegan High School senior was selected to participate in her school’s Shine Program, which builds a stronger college culture among students from lowincome families and helps every high school senior graduate with a solid post-secondary plan. “The Shine program required me to take at least one dual credit course, which introduced me to College of Lake County,” recalls Vazquez.
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CLC CONNECTS
