After months of planning and discussions, the Selma City School System is now one step closer to helping underprivileged students receive college degrees.

The school system has teamed up with SECME-a pre-college alliance linking engineering universities, public school systems, and corporate investors-to establish the Early College High School Initiative.

Yvonne Freeman, SECME Executive Director, said the program enables students who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend college to receive their high school diploma and an Associate’s degree or two years of college credit toward a baccalaureate without changing schools, applying to a college or even paying tuition.

“By the time they graduate from high school, these students will be able to enter college as juniors,” Freeman said.

On Wednesday, school administrators met with SECME representatives to discuss how the program will work and the impact it could have on students.

Freeman said ECHS takes students who are typically under-represented and under-served and provides them the abilities to succeed through dual enrollment in local colleges and a small “school within a school” program.

Students could begin taking pre-ECHS courses in middle school and continue with the program at Selma High.

“The disciplines in ECHS will be science, engineering, aquaculture, Ag Engineering, nanotechnology, and agribusiness,” Freeman said. “We hope that this program will eventually help bring agriculture businesses to Selma because the kids here will have extensive knowledge about agribusiness.”

Dr. Shaik Jeelani, Ph.D, Vice President of Research and Sponsored Programs at Tuskegee University, said he is helping the school system fine tune the ECHS curriculum for implementation this January.

“After these students graduate from high school, we are hoping they will be able to enter Tuskegee at least as sophomores,” Jeelani said. “We are investing our efforts so these students can go to Tuskegee and get their four-year science degree.”

Freeman said the SECME program’s goal is to show the rest of the country that all children are smart and have the ability to succeed, no matter their background.

“We believe that every child is born a genius, they just need to be given a chance,” Freeman said.

Tommy Chambers, SECME ECHS director, said the program came about as a way to eliminate barriers that were preventing some students from going to college.

“Research shows that small-group environments work best,” Chambers said. “Rather than experience that typical lull their senior year, what we call ‘senior-itis,’ students will actually be doing college-level work and have challenging and rigorous coursework.”

Irene Smith, Title 1 Resource teacher at Kingston Elementary School, said she wished this program existed when she was in high school.

“I grew up in East Selma, and when I was in high school the guidance counselor never offered college choices to me because of where I lived. There was a teacher who saw the potential in me,” Smith said. “This program will help students and is a true vision of No Child Left Behind.”

The school system has nearly completed the ECHS planning stages and now officials want bring the program into schools this January.