On Friday, over 240 students gathered at the Quincy Marriott with QPS staff, partners, and community and state officials for Quincy’s Early College High School (ECHS) Pathway 3rd Annual Symposium.
The ECHS Pathway is a cohort-based program offered with our partner, Quincy College, that provides eligible 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-grade QPS students the opportunity to earn college credit and set their post-secondary plans before they graduate from high school. In addition to their coursework, ECHS students receive academic and non-academic support opportunities focused on post-secondary success.
We welcomed many esteemed guests to the event, including Mayor Koch; House Speaker Mariano; Dr. Patrick Tutwiler, MA Secretary of Education; Jeffrey Riley, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; Joan Christel, President, State Street Foundation; and Dr. Rick DeCristofaro, President of Quincy College. Our speakers celebrated the success of the Quincy Early College program and commended our students (and their parents!) for recognizing the opportunity in front of them and modeling success for future ECHS students. For the third year in a row, Dr. DeCristofaro pledged one year of free tuition to any QPS ECHS senior who matriculates to Quincy College.
Following the morning program, students broke out into smaller groups for workshops on effective leadership, social media use, goal setting, and more.
We applaud all of our ECHS staff and students and offer special recognition to Skyline Cardoso-Mendes (NQHS ‘24) who emceed Friday’s event and to Kody DeJesus (NQHS ‘24), Ava Hawco (NQSH ‘24), Shiyanna Robinson-Moore (QHS ‘24), Sebastian Phan (QHS ‘24), Shaelyn Clark (NQHS ‘23 Alum), and Alexandria Monteiro (QHS ‘22 Alum) for presenting at the “Students Who Know” panel discussion.
Last but certainly not least, we offer special thanks to our partners, without whom this event and the success of this program would not be possible: