LURE OF DUAL CREDITS FIRES UP TEENS.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Sparks fly and metal clanks in shop class at North Eugene High School as students use lathes and presses and power tools to bend, drill and otherwise manipulate hunks of metal into submission.

Jessica Packnett, a 17-year-old senior and the only girl in the room, loves every minute of it. A sour morning mood quickly fades away once she gets a welding torch in her hands.

"I just love the whole thing," she said. "I love to weld."

As an added bonus, Packnett is earning college credits for her work in metal shop. She'll get 13 Lane Community College credits for a series of classes she has taken at North Eugene High School - saving her about $800 if she had taken those classes at LCC.

Dual credit programs aren't new, but as the cost of college tuition increases, more high school students are jumping at the chance to earn college credits before they receive a high school diploma.

LCC's College Now program has been around for 18 years, but has seen steady growth in recent years, both in the number of participating students and the number of credits earned, said Judith Gabriel, the program coordinator.

In the 2000-01 school year, 1,264 students earned 7,265 LCC credits. In the 2002-03 year, 1,516 students earned 9,534 credits, saving Lane County parents and students about $650,000, by Gabriel's estimate.

Sharp increases in tuition is one factor driving interest in the program, she said.

Nearly every community college and several four-year colleges have dual credit programs.

Not only do high school students get a jump on college, but the challenge of the advanced classes keeps seniors engaged academically, Gabriel said.

Students can earn up to six credits per class; most classes are worth three. The credits appear on an LCC transcript and can be applied toward degrees either at community or four-year schools.

The dual credit classes run the gamut, from vocational and technical courses such as drafting and auto shop to advanced academic classes in art, English, math and science.

For a $30 annual fee, students can earn as many college credits as

they can handle. The savings can add up when a single credit at LCC costs $63.

Jake DePew, 19, earned more than 15 LCC credits before graduating from Willamette High School in 2002.

He's taking the core requirements at LCC for a mechanical engineering degree, which he plans to complete at Oregon State University. He said the College Now program helped him a lot.

"It was a lot more beneficial for me because I was able to have instructors I knew and could talk to, who were local, that I saw everyday," he said.

Keith Miller, 19, took dual credit courses all four years at Thurston High School, graduating last spring with more than 20 LCC credits. Now he's a paramedic student working on an associate degree at LCC, as well as volunteering at the Pleasant Hill Fire Department.

"I was able to eliminate the classes I would have had to take in college and lessen my load in college," he said. "It was definitely much cheaper. I saved several thousand dollars."

And then there's Packnett, the North Eugene High senior. In her faded blue coveralls and welder's mask, she fits right in with the boys in metal shop.

"I'm kind of used to hanging out with the guys," she said. "They don't push me around - and if they do, I push back."

She's not sure what she wants to do for a career. She wants to get her welding certificate, and maybe work in metal fabrication. Or maybe she'll become a chef, or a counselor, or a photographer, or a sculptor.

Whatever she decides, she's sure that her metal shop experience - and the college credits she earned along the way - will come in handy.

"I'm a pyro," she said. "I love the metal shop."

COLLEGE NOW

For more information on Lane Community College's College Now program:

Visit the Web site at www.lanecc.edu/collhigh/index.htm

Call the program office at 463-5521.

CAPTION(S):

In metal shop at North Eugene High, Jessica Packnet, 17, earns college credits, which in the long run will save her tuition costs.