The 17 public high school seniors had yet to receive their high school diplomas. But last week, they earned associate degrees from the University of Hawaii and took part in the university system’s commencement exercises.

They were all participants in Early College, a program pioneered at Waipahu High School but now available statewide that brings University of Hawaii professors into high school classrooms to teach courses that count for both high school and college credits. It gives students, especially those who might not think of higher education, a chance to try it out at no cost and with no logistical hurdles.

“I just went ahead expecting someone to say, ‘Stop, you’re not supposed to let ninth graders take college classes,’” recalled Mark Silliman, director of Early College at Waipahu High School. “Nobody said stop.”

Twelve Waipahu High students were among the 17 who earned associate degrees. They graduated from Leeward Community College after tackling college classes as freshmen in the school’s Early College program.

The collaboration between the state Department of Education and the university has mushroomed in recent years, with 40 public high schools offering Early College courses this year.

The other Early College graduates receiving degrees before their 2018 high school graduations hailed from across the state, one each from Castle, Kailua, Waianae, Waiakea and Kihei Charter high schools. They received their associate degrees from Leeward, Windward Community College, Hawaii Community College and UH Maui College.

“This is an example of when you set the expectations really high, our students will meet that bar,” said Stephen Schatz, executive director of Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education. “Early College is about providing a pathway to success for our students from an early age and letting them know that they can succeed.”

At Waiakea High in Hilo, Craig Okahara-Olsen heard about Early College from his soccer coach, David Urakami, and ran with it. He started in the summer before his sophomore year with a course in interdisciplinary studies. Urakami encouraged him to shoot for an associate degree while still in high school.

“I didn’t think too much of it at first,” Okahara-Olsen said. “He was able to inspire me after I took a few classes. If it wasn’t for Waiakea High School, I wouldn’t even have had this opportunity.”

Okahara-Olsen, 18, is headed to the University of San Francisco on a presidential scholarship, with hopes of becoming a history professor.

Waipahu High School started early with this crop of 2018 graduates, reaching out to them in middle school. Dubbed “Olympians,” the students enrolled in their first college course at Waipahu High the summer before their freshman year.

The program had begun two years prior, in 2012, with juniors and seniors, but Silliman felt it would work better if it caught students earlier in their academic careers, a radical idea at the time.

“It was a deliberate, premeditated academic plan that enabled them to get this far,” he said.

Among the Waipahu students at Leeward’s commencement exercises Friday was Rovy Anne Dipaysa, who was the first Early College student to earn her associate degree, back in December, but she waited to take part in the spring ceremony.

A separate, older program, Running Start, has long allowed high school students to take courses on college campuses and some of them have earned associate degrees. But it tended to attract high achievers who can make their way to the college campuses on their own and pay regular tuition.

Early College is a way to help students who might not otherwise think they are college material find out that they are, without leaving their high school campuses.

“Participating in Early College is one of the best ways we have found to increase the probability of high school students going to college and then persisting from their first year to their second,” said UH President David Lassner. “It is particularly effective in improving college participation among low-income and under-represented groups.”

Early College was launched at Waipahu High with a McInerny Foundation grant and has attracted some federal and state funding. Legislators put $1 million in the last biennium budget and appropriated $500,000 this year.

“Funding is key,” Silliman said. “I’m hopeful that our state will go on to help our more needy and lower-income students get a jump into higher education.”