Ylealynn Datuin, a Montgomery County high school senior, will have two commencement ceremonies to attend this spring. She’ll be graduating college before she graduates high school.
That’s because in June, Datuin’s graduating from her home school, Clarksburg High School. But this week, she’ll graduate from Montgomery College with her associate degree in bioscience.
Datuin is among the roughly 400 students graduating in Montgomery College’s dual enrollment program that allows students to earn their high school diploma while taking college-level courses toward their associate’s degrees.
Akima Rogers, director of academic initiatives at Montgomery College, said Datuin “actually spent her entire junior and senior year of high school as a full-time college student. 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.”
Datuin said, in many ways, the early college dual enrollment program provides the best of both worlds for students.
They can work toward their associate degree while still in high school, and not lose that connection to high school friends.
“For example, during my 11th grade year, I was in theater” at her home school, Clarksburg High, “while I was also taking MC classes,” she said.
Being able to participate in extracurricular activities at her home school also helped Datuin find a constructive balance between the rigors of her Montgomery College courses and her desire to have an active life apart from the academics.
“It can help reregulate you, so that you can be at your best when you’re back doing your work and studying,” she said.
Datuin’s younger sister is also in the dual enrollment program, studying biochemistry.
The program is tailored for students who are highly motivated and know what they want to study.
“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 fits that description.
“I just wanted to fully focus on my college, on my college life, and you know, save money,” she said.
The money-saving part of the plan is based on the fact that all the credits she’s earned will transfer to any state institution in Maryland.
Rogers explained how that part of the program works.
Students, said Rogers, “will apply as a freshman with advanced standing, and then, once accepted, the credits will come in, so they’ll go in as a freshman in the fall, and by December, going into this spring semester, they may be at junior standing based on the number of credits they’ve earned.”
Datuin will be attending the University of Maryland Baltimore County in the fall.
Ultimately, she said her career goals are, “I’m thinking medicine, or like a research and development field.”
Asked about the growth of artificial intelligence and how that could impact her employment future, Datuin said she feels prepared.
“Because AI needs to be fed information, and it can’t just make new things out of nothing. I think that I should be OK.”
And when it comes to her college career, “I’ve also learned that AI can be used as a tool for studying,” so she’s confident it can be beneficial as she works toward a bachelor’s degree.
While the courses she took at MC have been demanding, Datuin said she encourages any student to explore the dual enrollment programs at Montgomery College.
She said students are grouped together, so classes are made up of other high school students at the same level, and that there are lots of supports in place.
“I was struggling very much with Calc 2, and me and my friends would take over my professor’s office hours,” she said. “He would really help us to understand the course, and I swear I passed just because of that.”
Rogers is also bullish on the program, even as the role of college educations are being reconsidered thanks to technological changes and the current 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.”
And often, he said, they return to say that a particular course, or the program itself, gave them the tools they needed to achieve their goals.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
漏 2026 海角社区app. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
