A new senior option

A+new+senior+option

Speech 101, a new dual credit class will be introduced next year as an added English option for seniors. Amy Lovi, an English teacher with past connections to teaching at Harper College, is scheduled to teach the class next fall.

“For a long time, this class only had given you an elective credit, but they reevaluated this year and decided it does qualify as an English credit,” Lovi said.

This reevaluation has expanded options for senior English credit.

“The Speech 101 class has always been an appealing course to students… because it really is a beneficial course and there are a lot of English skills present,” Lovi said.

Dual credit courses are courses that give both high school and college credits and are taught at that same collegiate level that you would get in a typical college class.

“It is still a Speech 101 course in its true form as a course that you would take at Harper College on site, but the difference is that this course is taught on site at the high school during your normal day,” Lovi said.

The dual credits received from this class are transferable to most public postsecondary schools in Illinois, such as Harper College or the University of Illinois, and many colleges and universities other throughout the country.

“But you should always check the university that you’re going to, to make sure that it is counted as a credit,” Lovi said.

Lovi also notes that this is still a collegiate level course and students should consider the added difficulty.

“It’s also something that students have to think about, that you’re building your college transcript already. So that grade is a college grade. You have to make sure that you’re really ready for that. Also, the Speech 101 class here gives you an AP GPA weighted like the 5.0 scale, without taking an AP test with the College Board,” Lovi said.

For sophomore Kaitlin Olszewski, Speech 101 English is an appealing class for the future.

“After I heard it was a dual credit class, I immediately wanted to take it for English my senior year,” Olszewski said.