CALUMET – Natasha Wright is in her first year of the Early College program at Calumet High School, and she very much enjoys the college courses she’s taking.

“It’s fun and you get the college feel,” said Wright, who is a senior.

The Early College program at CLK is free for CLK students. It’s conducted in collaboration with Gogebic Community College, and although it’s now in its second year, Wright said she didn’t take it last year when she was a junior. She will take a fifth year at CLK to get her second year of college courses, however.

“It’s a great opportunity,” she said.

Wright said she intends to go onto a four-year college. She’s been accepted at Northern Michigan University, Western Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University, and she intends to major in either communications or English.

George Twardzik, principal of Calumet High School, said Wright’s experience is exactly what school officials were hoping all students would have when they decided to take part in the Early College program, which began last school year.

Besides their regular high school classes, the 11th- and 12th-grade students in the program also take GCC classes. Students will earn either an associate of arts or associate of science degree in one year of community college classes rather than two. Those who move on to a four-year university will also be better prepared.

Twardzik said CLK has conducted three semesters of Early College classes so far, and 2,125 credits were earned. Last year, 84 students took part and this year, there are 134 students, and some of them are sophomores.

“The program grew this year from last year, and we intend to continue that growth,” he said.

That growth includes more class offerings, Twardzik said. Last year, there were two sections of English, college algebra and trigonometry, college economics and psychology. This year, public speaking, American literature, two sections of chemistry and two sections of calculus have been added.

Twardzik said 60 students from the senior class of 102 students returned this year for the fifth year in Early College.

Although the fifth-year students are in school after the year they would have graduated high school, Twardzik said the district still gets state funding for them.

While most of the fifth-year students are taking classes at Calumet High School, Twardzik said some are taking classes at the GCC Ironwood campus and some are at the GCC Copper Country Mall campus in Portage Township.

All students taking part in the Early College program also take high school classes, Twardzik said. However, the Early College classes are conducted just as they would be if the students were at one of the GCC campuses in Ironwood or at the Copper Country Mall. The instructors are either from GCC or they’re Calumet High School teachers who are also GCC adjunct instructors, which he thinks is unique in the state.

Most of the credits for the Early College program are transferable to a four-year institution, but Twardzik said some students won’t go beyond an associate’s degree, but they’ll still benefit from the experience.

“There’s lots of opportunities for those students to take the education they’re getting and incorporating it into something else,” he said.

Twardzik said when it was decided to do Early College at Calumet High School, he was expecting a much lower number of students would stay with the program than actually did.

“I’m overjoyed it went so well,” he said.

Senior Jordan Johnson said he didn’t take the Early College program last year because he wasn’t certain how it would work out.

“I wanted to see how everyone else would like it,” he said.

Johnson said he’s been impressed with the classes he’s taking.

“They’re a lot harder than high school,” he said.

He expects he’ll take the fifth-year classes, but he isn’t certain about going on to college.

“I’ll take the fifth year then see where I’ll go from there,” he said.