Northern Michigan University administrators will travel to three Upper Peninsula high schools—Westwood, Escanaba and Kingsford—that participate in the Northern Promise on Friday, Feb. 5. The Northern Promise gives high school students the opportunity to complete college credits prior to high school graduation at no tuition cost. NMU President Fritz Erickson and Steve VandenAvond, vice president for extended learning and community engagement, will thank two schools already participating in concurrent enrollment and sign a memorandum of understanding with a third school making a two-year commitment.  

With the Northern Promise, schools can choose to offer any of three program paths: concurrent enrollment courses; career-technical middle college; and Second Start. The latter is designed for students who did not plan on going to college and didn’t take the courses needed for university admission. The goals of the Northern Promise are to ease the transition to college while still promoting academic rigor, reduce the time required to earn a degree and save on tuition costs.

Here are details of each visit:

-8 a.m. at Westwood High School: The school has been a frontrunner in concurrent enrollment, offering NMU credit in English and calculus, with the possibility of expanding course offerings. Westwood students also can earn credits toward NMU’s Superior Edge leadership development program, in which students accumulate hours in four areas: citizenship, diversity, leadership and real-world experience.  

-10 a.m. at Escanaba High School: The school is the largest and fastest-growing Northern Promise partner. It offers concurrent enrollment in calculus.

-11:30 a.m. CST: Kingsford High School: NMU will sign a memorandum of understanding for a two-year commitment with this new Northern Promise school to launch pre-calculus and calculus courses.

Concurrent enrollment differs from Advanced Placement (AP) classes, which require that students take the courses in high school and then take AP exams to determine if they will earn college credits. Concurrent enrollment credits are guaranteed and the grades students receive for the courses will appear on their NMU transcripts. NMU ensures qualified instructors who are vetted through the relevant university academic departments and mentored by NMU faculty. NMU develops and oversees the Northern Promise curriculum.

While participating in a Northern Promise program, high school students also receive a Northern student identification card that can be used for many of the same services and facility access available to NMU students, as well as an NMU email account and academic transcript.

For more information, visit www.nmu.edu/northernpromise.