According to WTOP News, Ylealynn Datuin spent her junior and senior years of high school as a full-time college student. She attended classes at the Rockville campus of Montgomery College, earned college credit that simultaneously counted toward her high school requirements, and immersed herself in campus life for two years. This spring, she will attend two graduation ceremonies: one at Montgomery College, where she picked up her associate degree in bioscience this week, and one at her home school, Clarksburg High School, in June.
Datuin is among roughly 400 students completing Montgomery College’s dual enrollment program this year. The initiative allows high schoolers in Montgomery County, Maryland to work toward an associate degree while still fulfilling their secondary school requirements, with tuition covered as a full scholarship.
Two diplomas, two commencement ceremonies
Akima Rogers, director of academic initiatives at Montgomery College, described how thoroughly Datuin committed to the college track. “She took all of her classes at the Rockville campus of Montgomery College, and she earned the college credit, which also provided her high school credit, and so she was fully immersed into the college culture for those two years,” Rogers said, according to WTOP News.
She could pursue a college degree without severing ties to her high school experience. In 11th grade, she was still performing in the theater program at Clarksburg High while taking Montgomery College courses at the same time.
Extracurricular activities, she said, helped her stay grounded through a demanding academic schedule. “It can help reregulate you, so that you can be at your best when you’re back doing your work and studying.”
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Her younger sister has since enrolled in the dual enrollment program as well, studying biochemistry.
The program selects for maturity, not just grades
Rogers is clear that the program is not for every student. Academic performance is only part of the equation. “Students have to not only have strong academic ability, but also high motivation, as well as a certain level of maturity, because they’re expected to perform and produce like any other college student,” Rogers said.
Datuin said she recognized herself in that description from the start. “I just wanted to fully focus on my college, on my college life, and you know, save money,” she said.
All credits earned in the program transfer to any public university in Maryland. Students apply to four-year institutions as freshmen with advanced standing, and the accumulated credits can push them to junior status by their second semester. Rogers explained that a student entering in the fall could, by the following spring, have enough credits to be classified as a junior, cutting both the time and cost of a bachelor’s degree.
Datuin will attend the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the fall, with interests in medicine or research and development.
She and her friends regularly occupied their calculus professor’s office hours during a particularly difficult stretch. “He would really help us to understand the course, and I swear I passed just because of that,” she said.
She is also candid that students are grouped with other high schoolers in the dual enrollment track, and that substantial academic support is built into the program. For students on the fence, she frames those resources as a reason to try, not a reason for concern.
On artificial intelligence and its potential to reshape the job market she is entering, Datuin expressed confidence rather than anxiety. “Because AI needs to be fed information, and it can’t just make new things out of nothing,” she said. She has also found AI useful as a study tool and expects to continue using it as she works toward her bachelor’s degree.
Rogers remains a strong advocate for dual enrollment, even as broader debates about the value of a college degree intensify in a shifting economy. “It saves them a lot of money. The program is a full scholarship program. It also saves time to completion. It builds confidence, and it really sets them up for success long term. We hear about our students going on to get doctorates and working in different fields,” he said.
By Xie Xinyu, Vision Times
