Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Good morning, This is the Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. It is Friday, 02/20/2026, 09:58 in the morning. So we had a really quick floor this morning. Now we're back here with some students about early college and free degrees on today. So we've had some students touch. That's the fine. Katie?

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: Yes. Hello.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: I'm Katie Mobley with the community college. Do you mind if I invite Rutland up? That's fine. Rutland, do you want to sit in a

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: cup and see? That's helpful.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Morning, both of you.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Good morning. Thank you for having us. For the record, I'm Katie Mobley from Burlington, Vermont, and I am the dean of enrollment and community relations at CCV.

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: And I'm Ruby Hall, and I'm from Burlington. I am an early college, free degree Promise student at CCB.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: So I'm gonna start today just by giving a little bit of the framework of the program. I will say Ruby and I were talking about Ruby's nervous. And so I really appreciate you having student voice in this committee. We're going to do a great job, right? That's why we're doing it together. Just

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: think of it as being at the kitchen table with having a conversation with your family. That's what we're doing.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: That's a great way to say it. Thank you. We really appreciate the opportunity to be here today and talk about early college and Free Degree Promise. And just for sort of a foundation setting, the early college program was established, the Flexible Pathways program, with a couple goals in mind. One was to increase high school graduation rates in the state of Vermont. And as you shared on the floor today, that is an area we have not yet improved upon as a state. The other part of the program was to make sure that students are college and career ready. And we know as a committee, give a lot of thought to that career component. And I think that's one of the hallmarks of this program, that it allows students to explore careers earlier in their high school time period. And it gives them an opportunity to explore the skills that they might need to progress. This year at CCV, we have about two forty students participating in early college. And we have students from every county and almost every high school in the state. And of the schools who have participated, on average, it's fewer than five students from each high school that participate in the program. So it's a unique student who considers early college, and then that acts as the gateway towards the free degree promise, which is sponsored by the McClure Foundation. I would be remiss if I didn't state that 47% of our students currently identify as low income. And this year, we have 60 different high schools represented. So there's 72 high schools in Vermont. We have 60 of them in this class. It's important, I think, to talk about who's enrolling at early college at CCB. And I think one of the things that's also important to think about is how few courses the vast majority of our early college students need to graduate from high school. So 80 of early college students need two or fewer classes in their senior year to graduate. So that is you know, it's very few courses that students need. And so what a great way for these students to maximize the time that they're spending their senior year, earn college credits, and then have the opportunity to pursue an accelerated debt free associate's degree through the free degree promise. There's a lot of different student types in early college. I think there are those students who are ready to be in a different environment socially. There's certainly the piece of students who are ready to be in a different environment academically. And then I think there are those students who are saying, I wanna pursue higher education, and I wanna do this in the most affordable, efficient way possible. And we'll we'll hear from Ruby about why she picked early college. I think the last piece that I would just say is that students who are in early college are succeeding academically. We have an average GPA of 3.2 for students, so I think there's that challenge, and I'll be curious to hear from you about your classes. And I just wanna, again, say say thank you for the the chance to to talk with this committee. So, Ruby, do you wanna talk a little bit about yourself and early college?

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: Yeah, so I originally was interested in doing early college because I was kind of ready to be done with high school. Going into my senior year, like you mentioned, I only needed one credit to graduate. So I was considering taking a summer class and then graduating early or something. But then my school counselors recommended early college to me because I didn't really know what I would do if I graduated early. I was ready to be done with high school. I had done everything I needed to do and I didn't really want to be there anymore. But I didn't really know of another option. And I think in general, I wasn't really sure about what kind of things I would want to study in college or didn't really have a plan for a career path. And so I did I'm doing in the STEM studies associates program. This is my last semester, so I'm about to get my associates degree. And I picked that just so I could sort of explore my interests better, which has been really helpful for me. In high school, I feel like you're sort of set on this, like you take these specific classes and you don't have as much choice for looking at different career paths and looking at different fields you could go into. But then at CCV, there's a lot of different options for what kind of classes to take. So I was thinking about, oh, maybe I want to go into computer science. But then I took some classes at CCD and I thought maybe I don't want to do that. Then right now, I've really found that I'm very interested in environmental science and city planning too. So it's been really helpful to explore my interests and in a cost effective way because another big barrier was, I felt really like a hard decision to make to go to a four year college that costs so much money when I wasn't even sure what I wanted to study. My parents both were like still paying off their student loans. My mom is 46. She still has hers. My dad's were just forgiven a couple of years ago and they don't want me to have the same sort of loans that they have been dealing with. And so thinking about how to do college more economically has also been a big consideration. Yeah, so I think it was a good way to just explore my interests and find out what I wanted to do with less risk than going to a school far away that costs a lot of money, you have to kind of pick what you're doing.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Yeah? Okay. Awe. Any questions? Yeah. There might be questions.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: It's what

[Unidentified Committee Member]: I have one for both of you. Okay. First of all, more of a comment for you, Ruby. I serve on a planning commission.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Mhmm.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: And did you know all those meetings are all available to the public. And if you're interested in doing city planning, which we would love to have you, don't worry. I would suggest, you know, go to Zoom or even go to these meetings and find out if it's something you really like. I very much have enjoyed it, I wanted to give you that. As far as you, can you talk a little bit about how you've helped homeschooling children? Because I know my own child is a recipient of the early college program.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Oh, that's great.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Who was homeschooled his entire life.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Wonderful. Do you remember how we heard about it?

[Unidentified Committee Member]: I don't remember. I'd have to ask my wife. She would know more than I would.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Sure. Yeah, when I was reviewing the data at homeschool, we tend to or home studies, I think, is the term we're using these days. I try to use the right terminology. I think we have about 15 students currently in early college who are home studies students. And we work very closely in collaboration with the Agency of Education. And part of ACT 77, and stop me if you are all familiar with this, but part of that program is dual enrollment. And so every Vermont high school student has access to two free courses throughout their high school career. So we often see home study students who are taking those classes. Ruby and I were talking about chemistry in the hallway, that that may be a course that they want to take in a college environment, or math if you're going to a higher level math. So home study students will often start with those dual enrollment courses. Many of them will continue with early college. We partner really closely with the agency of Ed. That's sort of our main conduit to home study students, because as I'm sure you're familiar, those students have to submit a plan every year and it needs to be going sort of progress towards their overall graduation. I think that's just another student population that has said, we want a different high school or, in your case, elementary and middle school experience. And CCD does a lot of outreach to those students to make sure they're aware of the ways in which we can support their academic progress. Thank you. Yeah, of course.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: So Ruby, I love that your school helped you with these flexible pathways. Just because what we're hearing is it's pretty inconsistent across the state where some schools are very much able to help their students find the pathway that works best for them and others are not. Can you talk a little bit about the size of your school, if you're near Chittenden County or if you're how you're

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: Yeah. So I went to Burlington High School. So I think there's usually about a thousand students at Burlington High School. And there's a whole, I don't know what it's like at other schools, but there's like a whole like flexible pathways coordinator who handles all the flexible pathways as her job there. So she was very helpful to me.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: So you

[Unidentified Committee Member]: have part time CTE at your school, you have advanced placement classes at your school, you have lots of different options for students there. And then colleges close by that you can. Yes.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Other questions? What are your plans? Are you planning on staying in Vermont? You going to look around the country?

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: Right now, actually, right, so I want to go to Europe actually, because I have a dual citizenship with Germany, so I wanna go to The Netherlands for a little while, but I really love Vermont. So I think maybe after that, I wanna come back. Well, I'll see how I feel, I guess. But I'm just kind of interested. Like, I've lived in Vermont my whole life. I kind of want to, like, see the world a little bit, but I do really love it here.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: You think you'll go to go to school overseas?

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: That's what I'm hoping for to happen, I guess.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: We'll help those credits transfer. We talk about that. We got some paperwork to do. We can do that.

[Unidentified Participant (likely committee member or CCV staff)]: Sorry. Didn't know that. Great. Yeah. Yeah.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Anything else for Ruby?

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. I don't know if she's looked into the economics, like, into college in Europe, The US and scholars here. My impression, I don't think of it already Yeah. Is that you have a very different setup over there in terms of how they support both non college, but also college sports. That an impact you looked into?

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: Yeah. That's sort of another motivation, like, just trying to get education as, like, low cost as possible. Like, since I'm, technically an EU citizen, it would be very low cost to go to a school in the EU, much lower than The US, which is

[Unidentified Committee Member]: a pretty easy gap, right? Yeah.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Ruby, thank you. And all the best to you.

[Unidentified Participant (likely committee member or CCV staff)]: Thank you. Thank you for coming in.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Thank you for making the time today on this. We very much appreciate it.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Are you gonna hear from him next?

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: So the other couple students that were on the agenda weren't here. Is it okay if I invite an additional student to come up? I haven't

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: the students you have with you

[Unidentified Participant (likely committee member or CCV staff)]: Do want

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: eye contact with me? I don't know. Does anyone feel like they want Yeah. Chance, come on in.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Are we talking about the homeschool stuff?

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Oh, okay. Felix, do want to do that? Please keep me on track of your time. I don't want to Let's come on in.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: We're already pregnant.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Okay. Sure.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Do you want to introduce yourself and say where you're from?

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: Yes. Hi, my name's Felix. I live up in Ripton, Vermont, and I've been going to CCV since last year. This is my final semester in the Free Degree Promise.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: And you're a homeschool? Yes. Do you want talk a little

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. Bit about

[Felix [last name unknown] (Homeschool student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: So I ended up doing the early college and free degree promise program because I wanted something to replace the high school diploma that I wouldn't get doing home study and the free degree promise, as well as the dual enrollment was a good pathway into that. So it's allowing me to get a degree instead of a diploma that I can then use to move on later. It's been really helpful for that.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: What program are you?

[Felix [last name unknown] (Homeschool student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: STEM studies with a focus on biology specifically.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: How'd you pick that?

[Felix [last name unknown] (Homeschool student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: Trial and error with the classes I was taking. I knew I wanted to do STEM from the beginning, but I wasn't sure exactly what field I wanted to go into. So I tried a few things. I tried computer science. I've been taking chemistry classes. But yeah, I landed on biology because that's been my favorite.

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: What's next?

[Felix [last name unknown] (Homeschool student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: I'm actually planning on moving to Norway and attending university I'm also a dual citizen of Norway, I can go to university without tuition there. So that's the plan. If I don't get in there, I'm intending to go to UBM.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: How did you learn about the program?

[Felix [last name unknown] (Homeschool student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: About the dual enrollment. I think it was just looking around trying to figure out solutions with my family for the high school diploma issue that we were having with the home study. Because we were talking about like, Oh, if you're gonna go get a job or apply for schools, not having a diploma is gonna be an issue sometimes. So we were looking for solutions of how I could do that. And so we looked into the GED, but then we all found the early college and thought, Hey, that could be a good idea. It can be a good gateway into

[Unidentified Committee Member]: universities and stuff. And how was the transition?

[Felix [last name unknown] (Homeschool student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: It was pretty good. It was definitely a different environment, a lot of change, but I wasn't in a high school before that. So I It wasn't such a drastic change in that sense. It was more of just like, Oh, now there's more structure than there was before instead of a drastic change of structure. And I think that was easier. The social environment is nice. CCV has a good social environment. It feels easy to talk to people, classmates. I enjoy helping people in my classes a lot. Like if I understand the subject, I will talk through it with my classmates. And I find that's really helpful in understanding things for myself as well.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: I was gonna ask if your classes were mostly remote or in person, but it

[Felix [last name unknown] (Homeschool student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: sounds like in person. Yes, I've done mostly in person classes. This semester I'm doing online simply because of the driving. The winter is a little more difficult. That flexibility is good that I can decide between them. I'm only doing two classes this semester because that's all that I need to complete my degree. Another thing with CCV is that they let me do classes through Vermont State University. So if there's classes that aren't at CCV, I can do them through BTSU instead. That's what I've been doing for my calculus classes.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: I do have a question. I just want to say I'm very envious of both of you. I would have loved to have to be able to take I was one of those people that I had, like, one or two credits in high school, and I would have loved to do something productive rather than what I did. And I at one point applied for graduate school at the University of Tromza in Norway, again, because tuition is free, even

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: for Americans who want to go there.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: And I got accepted, but my life didn't work out, so I didn't go. So I'm envious of you for that opportunity. I think it's gonna be great. So great job, all of you. I mean, think you're on wonderful paths.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Yeah. Anyone else want

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: to? Anyone else want to?

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. Come on up.

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: Alright. You can feel it. You.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: You wanna introduce yourself?

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: Yes, I will. Alright. Good morning, everybody. I am Brandon Swam. I am I currently live in Middlesex. I am a current student of the Early College Program. I am currently also a senior at U32. Let's see. What I'm progressing towards right now is an associate's in business, which feels very important to me just because of how broad of a field that applies to, really. It gets my foot in the door of a lot of different jobs, which feels important just because of how the job market is getting progressively more volatile. And also, my plan after I get this associate's is I'm going to try and go to another university or hopefully a separate degree, because I feel like the option of either double majoring in business or something else or just getting something else with that associate's allows me to pursue my potential interests. I really don't think that I would be able to do that otherwise, if I'm being completely honest, especially considering I would love to stay in the state. But I feel that that's going to be very difficult just because of the way things look right now. And I think having that option of having two separate degrees available to me, one which is more of like job security, sort of a fail safe, and another which can allow me to pursue a career that I might be interested in feels invaluable.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Just going to put a plug in for CPAs. If you have any interest in math, we desperately need CPAs in Vermont. And so if you want to stay here, there's a lot of career opportunity in Vermont. I have been potentially considering math as

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: a degree I could get into.

[Unidentified Participant (likely committee member or CCV staff)]: We have an accounting degree.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: We can talk about that.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: I'm sorry, accounting.

[Unidentified Participant (likely committee member or CCV staff)]: Yeah, that's

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: great. Yeah, I've been considering that as well.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: That's great, yeah.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: We have a big Vermont's the number one domicile for captive insurance in the world. We have a They're looking for a lot of CPAs, and it's a great industry to get into. Paying, really well paying jobs if you get into that. There's a lot of opportunity. The banks, our financial institutions are always looking for people as well, not just CPAs, but they need loan officers. Banks and credit unions generally do a really good job of promoting within. So you can start out at a level entry job, I know the bank in my area, Community National Bank, of the people that were running the bank started as tellers. There's a lot of opportunities, I think, that our students don't realize, and I don't think we're doing a very good job of promoting that either, of what our business community can offer. Yeah. We

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: we sorry. We interrupt. We do a program called Access Days with middle school students, and it's a day where they come to CCV and then they attend mini classes. And we've started to do it more and more in collaboration with businesses. We have an allied health one. We've had a manufacturing one, but you just gave me the idea. We have not yet had one connected to banking or insurance, and I'm taking that and gonna make that happen. That's a great that's a great idea. Earlier awareness of that.

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: Yeah. Insurance would probably be a good idea.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Yeah. Well, maybe we'll connect you up.

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: Well, I I just say that because I have parents who have recently gotten into insurance, And it just opened my eyes to the scope of the industry and also just the fact that I feel like not a lot of people are aware of it, also not a lot of people are particularly interested in insurance. Can't imagine why. And so I feel like that's definitely an opportunity I should pursue, because I feel like, of all industries, that one is definitely one where I could get a job anywhere if I wanted to, if I had the right credentials.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: If you have a lot of strong math, actuaries pay really well.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah, it's true.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Little bit more. It's an interesting feeling. It's not just like traditional insurance, that's great too, but there's such variety, I think, in terms of the management companies that are involved with captive because they work in connection with these companies and they come all sorts of different business sectors, Anyway, additional points.

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: Yeah, I actually do know a little bit about capitals. I think I actually heard that comment you made. I think I've actually heard that somewhere. Don't remember where from. So I am a little bit aware of it. It does seem interesting. We have your future, I'll plug it in.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Yeah. I love it. It's great. Yeah.

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: Well, ultimately, I'm not sure if that's something I might be interested in. It's just something I think is valuable to try and pursue just to see if I might be interested in that or at the very least, it's a steady job.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: When we go offline, we can certainly give you the names of some people that you could touch base with in the captive world that you could just talk to and get a better understanding.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Thank you for that. That's great.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: We didn't go offline just yet. Hannah's in the building. Just for clarity. She's Hannah. She's in the building. Hannah.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: I'm not gonna try to pronounce her last

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: name.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: She's She'll

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: be one of the Yeah.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Oh, yes. Right there.

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: It's on the agenda.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Did you have time for a hand at a time? Thank you so much. On over. You're gonna be in the hot seat here. I'll let you sit in the comfier chair. Take care. You're so welcome. Thanks for coming.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Sorry about that. Thank you

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: for that, everyone. Good morning. So

[Hannah Dubrilovich (Student, CCV Early College - Health Sciences)]: name is Hannah Dubrilovich. I see a familiar face. Hi, Michael. I'm an early college student at CCV. My major is health and sciences. And the reason I chose CCV was because it gave me an opportunity to get all of my prerequisites for nursing school done. And it's been awesome, truly. I've gotten to take so many courses that are required for my program that honestly, at my schedule for next year, I only have hands on nursing classes to do, an intro to pharmacology, which is amazing. I really am going to be able to do my nursing school and not worry about anatomy and physiology. I've gotten to work with amazing professors who have helped me. CCV, they offer so many resources, so many different centers if you need help or if you need tutoring. I believe we are offered a couple of hours of tutoring every week if we need that. But the teachers are very motivated to help you that I haven't even felt like I needed that resource yet. But if I wanted to, I could. And that's very nice to have that option of doing so. So sorry, it's a little hot in here. I recommend CCV to anybody. The other day when I was at school, I saw a sign that said 97% of CCB students would recommend it to a friend, and I have to agree with that. Early college, I think it provided me more opportunities than my high school would have. No offense to Spaulding. But it allowed me to get a step ahead. And I don't know if I would have gotten in my nursing program if I hadn't been at early college and hadn't been already taking courses for it. And that's part of why I truly recommend it. I love it. And I love the courses. I love that my schedule is more flexible. I have time. I work in an assisted living room outside of school. And I've had time to, you know, go to class three days a week, and then have time to be able to work and make my own money. And it's provided me so much experience, and also I've made so many connections, I met so many people from other schools. Look at me being here today. This is an opportunity I wouldn't have known about if it wasn't for CCV. Yeah. Hannah, what town are you from? Oh, I'm from Barrie. Great, thank you. How

[Unidentified Committee Member]: did you learn about early college?

[Hannah Dubrilovich (Student, CCV Early College - Health Sciences)]: Early college is pretty well known in my high school because a lot of our school counselors recommend it. And also my VSAT counselor, Chelsea Martin, specifically recommended I do it. And I definitely have her to thank for that, because she helped me apply for it and do my vouchers and my dual enrollment,

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: all of that good stuff.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Sorry, guys. I'm gonna sit right down. You're great. How far do you have

[Unidentified Committee Member]: to drive to go to school?

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Is there a CCB in Is it in Barrie or where do you It's in

[Hannah Dubrilovich (Student, CCV Early College - Health Sciences)]: Montpelier here in Montpelier. So I have to commute about I live in East Barrie specifically, so I commute about twenty eight minutes to class every day. Or not every day, three days a week. I have scheduled classes. But it's been great. I get to do a lot of labs, especially for anatomy. We've done sheep eye dissections, sheep brains. We're gonna do pig heart soon. So I've really gotten a lot of hands on experience. The other day, just this Wednesday, we did a blood lab where we had little fake blood samples and we got to test for anti Rh factors and figure out what blood type it was in the sample from using that little test subjects to do the little anti A pathogen stuff like that and figure out from that what was that blood type. And that's cool. That's stuff you do in a lab if you decide to go onto that path. And I like that. I like having that experience. And I really like the flexible schedule the most, really. Instead of five days a week, eight hours a day, that drains In the wintertime, you come home from school and it's dark out. Your whole day is gone. So having certain classes a couple days a week is perfect.

[Brandon Swam (Student, U-32/CCV Early College)]: Where

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: where are you planning on continuing your education?

[Hannah Dubrilovich (Student, CCV Early College - Health Sciences)]: That's great. So I am committed to Vermont State University Randolph for their accelerated nursing program next year. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very excited for that.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: So we've been working with BSAC. You're aware of the scholarships and loan forgiveness that we put in the last few years.

[Hannah Dubrilovich (Student, CCV Early College - Health Sciences)]: Yeah, VSAC's amazing. I'm a part of that TRIO program because my parents didn't get four year degrees. They both got associate's degrees. So because of that, I'm a part of VSAC and it's really granted me great opportunities. I was applying to colleges, I didn't have to pay for application fees and those can add up so fast. So it really helped me out in a lot of ways.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: And you're planning on staying here, correct?

[Hannah Dubrilovich (Student, CCV Early College - Health Sciences)]: Staying in Vermont? Yes, I would definitely love to work in Vermont. And my ultimate goal is to be a travel nurse. So I definitely wanna get some Vermont experience and then go live my life, explore a bit, maybe a warmer climate for a little bit, and then I'll come back to Vermont probably. But, yeah, that's what I'm thinking about.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Any other questions?

[Hannah Dubrilovich (Student, CCV Early College - Health Sciences)]: Great. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate appreciate

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: so much for having us this morning. Madison, you're the only one, not to put you on the spot. Do

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: you Okay. Have

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: All right. If you have time, this is wonderful. Hannah, sorry, seriously. I do like, come right in.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: No, you're fine. Thank you

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: for knowing she was in the building. Are you hooked? A little bit, sorry. No, you're good.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Hi. You

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: know the job, Monique. I do know the job. Okay, all right.

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: I'm Madison, I'm a CCV student, and I'm also enrolled in the free degree promise, and I'm on path to get my associates in spring. I'm from Chelburne. I went to CVU,

[Madison [last name unknown] (Student, CCV Free Degree Promise - Health Science)]: and my major is in health science. I'm also on track to go to UVM and get my accelerated master's in biochemistry in three years. So I will

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Good for you.

[Madison [last name unknown] (Student, CCV Free Degree Promise - Health Science)]: Yeah. So I will hopefully have a master's four

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: year out of high school and only pay for three.

[Madison [last name unknown] (Student, CCV Free Degree Promise - Health Science)]: That's my master So plan.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: So

[Unidentified Committee Member]: you'd have a BS and a master's

[Ruby Hall (Student, CCV Early College/Free Degree Promise)]: and only pay for three years?

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Yes.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: That's very cool.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: How'd you know about that? How'd you map it out?

[Madison [last name unknown] (Student, CCV Free Degree Promise - Health Science)]: Oh, I don't know. I always knew I wanted to go into the medical field. When I thought about that, was like, Damn, I'm going to be in college forever. I was like, Why don't I head start that? So before I knew about early college, I was on track to graduate early at the end of my junior year by taking a lot of classes also using the dual enrollment classes at UVM. And after I learned about early college, was like, why don't I just do that for two years? And then I'll be a year ahead, college wise and high school wise, so I won't have to spend so much money and time getting and getting my education so I could take that route into medical working.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Questions?

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Okay, do

[Unidentified Committee Member]: you think you'll be staying here?

[Unidentified Participant (likely committee member or CCV staff)]: I believe I will be staying here. I think the hospital here is really great. Emerging from UVM into the hospital, it's very smooth. I have a lot of family here.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Family's important.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Thank you.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Great. Thank you for joining us.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Thank you so much for having us. This was such a pleasure. And these students will be throughout the building today, and yeah, please come find them. But we are deeply grateful of you all taking the time to talk with us.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: Thank you for coming in.

[Katie Mobley (CCV Dean of Enrollment and Community Relations)]: Thanks. Yeah, we'll head back to the card room, everybody. Great. Murphy, would you mind grabbing my water? And then we're going to find you about captive insurance because I don't even think I could describe what captive insurance is. So clearly, I'm not telling students about it. I will just say that. You so much.

[Michael Marcotte (Chair)]: So we can go off live with