By Taylor Emma | Observer Reporter
Cassandra Vazquez, 17 is enrolled in her second semester at MWCC through the Pathways Early Innovation College (PEIC) program at the school. PEIC is a program for juniors in high school that want to earn their associate’s degree before they graduate high school and was created to give low-income students the opportunity to explore their interests, talents and hobbies.
Vazquez planned on enrolling with a nursing major; however, the major requires her to already have a high school diploma so she will switch her major to an LAS (Liberal Arts & Sciences).
“I pretty much think it’s bull because I want to go directly into nursing. So now I have to take all the prerequisites for nursing and then transfer to a four year college,” Said, Vazquez.
According to Vazquez, getting her associate’s degree through PEIC is more important than focusing directly on her major from the get-go; but the road ahead looks tiring.
“It is free… BUT we have to go to college for 20 straight months –which means going to all the intersessions and even taking summer classes, which in my eyes is awful because I don’t ever get a break off school. But whatever it’s a free associate’s degree and I’m broke so I’ll still take it,” Vazquez laughs.
To Vazquez, all of this hard work is worth the wait. She says she will get her general associate’s degree along with some of the beginner’s nursing credits she needs to transfer to a Nursing Academy. Vazquez’s future plans consist of receiving her associate’s degree from MWCC, then enrolling in Fitchburg State University, where she will complete a nursing major.
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