Early College Academy (ECA) is a program where 25 students between TJ and AL are selected to attend Iowa Western Community College full time.
This year’s seniors include: Serin Anderson, Ava Armstrong, Daniel Cannon, Austin Costello, George Garst, Addison Naughton, Grace Nixt, Garret Robertus, Kiai Schleifman, Joshua Shamblen, Jasmine Shields, Olivia Sommerville, Emma Stephens, and Alexander Van Sickle.
Jazmine Shields plans to attend Coe College and major in environmental science.
“I’ve taken so many classes and I actually found out what I wanted to do in college because of it,” said Shields. “I really wanted to go into a science field, and Iowa Western has an environmental science program, and I found out that’s what
I wanted to do, and so now I’m gonna major in environmental science next year.”
Shields said she’s going to miss the relationships she made the most.
“I feel like I made a lot of friends with TJ kids that I definitely would not have met before, and I hang out with them all the time. They’re probably some of my best friends now that I’m gonna stick with for the rest of my life,” said Shields.
“We had a lot of classes together, and so we all were just hanging out together all the time, and I think those relationships will really stick. I really, really enjoy hanging out with everyone.”
Serin Anderson plans to attend UNO for business administration, and said his biggest regret is the failure to apply himself.
“In what should have been an easy class in my first semester I didn’t always get to my work and I just barely missed the threshold of a B,” said Anderson. “Knowing the college schedule now I wouldn’t let that happen but I value learning that before I make it at a 4-year university.”
Anderson also said he’s going to miss the relationships he’s made the most.
“I am really going to miss all of my friends I goofed around with and also all my amazing teachers,” said Anderson. “The staff at Iowa Western are all so great and genuinely want to see you succeed. Even cheering you on in the front row while you fight in a cage.”
Grace Nixt is attending Hamline University and majoring in forensic psychology, she said she enjoyed not being bound to high school most.
“The extra freedom that we don’t have in high school, being able to not only end class early, but also walk out and just go wherever afterwards,” said Nixt. “I didn’t have to attend classes. I could use that time for other things or even just to relax. So all that extra freedom was really nice.”
Nixt also said the biggest lesson she learned was to manage her time.
“A lot of it just comes down to how to manage everything that you have, your workload, your classes, being able to find time because I’m also at the high school as well as a college,” said Nixt, “being able to learn how to do all that as like the best lesson I could get out of this, and probably the best thing I can take forward when I go off to a 4 year college.”
Daniel Cannon wants to attend Dartmouth college and major in audio engineering.
“ECA was fun, I think I picked a really good major. I was surrounded by great people. Great teachers, and I built a strong community, and it was good,” said Cannon.
Cannon also said his biggest regret is his decisions in math classes.
“My last math was college algebra, and trigonometry. If you want to get into most good schools, you need at least pre-calc,” said Cannon. “So if I had done one more year of math or 2 more years of math, then I also would have had a better ACT score.”
As for words of advice from our graduating seniors, here they are:
“Make mistakes. It’s okay to, if you fail something like certain tests or an assignment, or if things aren’t going well, it’s okay to make mistakes, and also follow your gut instinct.”- Grace
“For all the new ECA students I encourage you to all make friends with your teachers at Iowa Western. They have so much to give you past the course material that is so valuable. You’ll walk away from ECA with much more than just an associate’s degree if you can open up to all those amazing staff on campus.” -Serin
“General studies is fine. See if you can make one work that you’re more passionate about, because most people do general studies. There’s other degrees like that where it’s like, if you’re passionate about it, see if you can make it work and do your ingenuity on time and get your degree and whatever you want to do, not what most people do.” -Daniel
“Don’t quit any classes that are hard just because it’s hard doesn’t mean that you should stop. I ended up going to tutoring, which I had never needed any help with any of my classes. But don’t be afraid to go tutoring and if you need help, ask for it. It’s definitely, it’s free and it’s available for everyone to use. I would highly encourage going to tutoring all the time.” -Jasmine
Goodluck and farewell, Seniors!
