![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/CharlieDavis_STEM-HS-300x225.jpg\")
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Questar III BOCES and Hudson Valley Community College STEM High School in Troy is an uncommon experience for students: get a degree (for free) while still in high school.<\/p>\n
Charlie Davis is a junior at the STEM High School and by the time he graduates, will have an associate\u2019s degree in computer information systems. Halfway through his junior year, he has already accumulated 60 college credits.<\/p>\n
Housed in HVCC\u2019s Lang Technical Building, the program is offered to seven counties and 46 school districts and provides high school and college education with a focus in one of four pathways: computer information systems, engineering technology, health sciences, and environmental science and protection technology. The tuition costs \u2013 including books and any fees \u2013 are entirely covered.<\/p>\n
Davis is originally part of the Hoosick Valley Central School District in northern Rensselaer County. He has a 4.0 GPA and is considering RPI, RIT or Cornell University as potential college choices.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your favorite part of being here?<\/strong> \u201cThere\u2019s an ice skating rink, there is a track and field. There\u2019s like a fancy science center with a set of labs and a greenhouse. The Campus Center, you can get food and hang out. There\u2019s like air hockey tables, ping pong.\u201d<\/p>\n How did you hear about the program and become involved?<\/strong> Do you have a favorite class?<\/strong> \u201cAnd it\u2019s the best of my two interests in art and logic, combining those to make a game.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you have any future plans of what major you want to go into? Or any career ideas?<\/strong> \u201cHere, I graduate with an associate\u2019s degree. And then after this, I would go and get my bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n What do you think are the main advantages of this program?<\/strong> <\/p>\n Published:<\/strong>\u00a0Tue, 19 Dec 2023 12:45:18 +0000 by\u00a0d.gardner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Charlie Davis, a junior at The Questar III and Hudson Valley Community College STEM High School, participated in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cMy favorite parts, there\u2019s a lot of cool people, a lot of people with similar interests, have a lot of friends. The campus is great. Like the high school might be small compared to another high school. But the campus is ginormous. There\u2019s a lot of buildings, we get to go all over to our college classes. There\u2019s a whole gym building complex.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI think there was a news article, and my grandparents saw it, and they saw that you can get free college credits, and they sent it to my mom. And my mom really liked that idea. And then told me and she was pretty set on it. I was for it, so then I came here, and it was it was a good choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMost of the high school classes are like normal high school classes, and they\u2019re good, but my favorite classes have been the college classes. And my favorite one has been game design, which I took this semester. It\u2019s a good mixture of programming and creativity. So it feels like an art class mixed with programming.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYeah, I\u2019ve been interested in computer science. I\u2019m doing the computer science pathway through [the STEM high school] It\u2019s four pathways, and I did the computer science one. So after, probably some software development, and game design as a job, I would like to look into that. But after I leave this college high school program, I\u2019d like to go on and get a larger degree.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of support between the teachers and the friends and what\u2019s available on college. So, even though the classes can be kind of difficult, there\u2019s a lot of ways you can reach out for help and get assistance, and it\u2019s also just a very nice environment. It\u2019s fun to come to get your work done, compared to I guess, a normal high school.\u201d<\/p>\n