SNYDER, Texas -- Shelby Ragsdale is not your normal college graduate.
Ragsdale will walk across the stage at Western Texas College in Snyder in May, but there is one catch to her story.
Ragsdale is a senior at Roscoe High School and will receive her associate’s degree from college before receiving a high school diploma.
She is the first student from the Roscoe Collegiate High School (RCHS) to earn her degree while completing both high school and junior college courses.
"It is kind of overwhelming to have one graduation three weeks before the other," she said. "It is even more amazing because I am getting my associate degree before my high school diploma."
Through the RCHS program, Ragsdale and other students are taking college courses through WTC and Texas State Technical College to prepare them for college life. She will leave WTC with a grade point average over 3.25 and will graduate high school among the top of her class.
"She is a smart girl," said mother Gina. "I am so glad she is applying her smartness in this way."
But there have been some drawbacks along the way.
"Time management was the biggest obstacle," Ragsdale said,
noting the first semester she did not want to complete the homework.
"I had to figure out a way to get the homework done. Sometimes I had to give up time with my friends on weekends. That is always hard. I just thought I had to grow up sometimes and say I have to get my homework done."
And it also led to completing homework while she was a cheerleader.
"I would bring my homework to cheer practice or would be up in the stands with a laptop finishing homework," Ragsdale added.
She also said support from Roscoe administrators, her family and WTC helped along the way.
"WTC officials would always give Roscoe High School a lot of advantages for its dual credit," she said. "Our administrators were pushing us to take college courses.
"At first, I really didn’t like it. Now, I am glad that I did this because it prepared me for college."
Next year, she will enter Lubbock Christian University as a junior and plans to major in elementary education. She found a passion for students during a WTC lab class.
"I observed the elementary students and fell in love with the first grade," she said. "They are great kids to work with." She added that LCU is a perfect fit for her.
"I always wanted to go to a small Christian school and all of my hours will transfer," Ragsdale said. "It will be kind of scary walking on a campus. But I think it will be cool."
While completing her associate’s work, Ragsdale did everything online and never took a course on campus.
RCHS director Jacob Tiemann said the program is good for all students, especially those first-generation college students, low-income students, minorities and English language learners.
And for the Ragsdales, it was not a financial burden.
Roscoe ISD paid for all the courses and textbooks for the students and Ragsdale said she probably saved her family $20,000 by earning the WTC degree.
Roscoe High School counselor Marsha Alexander hopes Ragsdale’s work will rub off on other students.
"If students would take the early courses (freshman and sophomore classes) and get them out of the way it will show them how it works. That is where most (college) students fail," she said.
Alexander said the RCHS program is a success as some students are taking as many as 15 hours of college courses right now.
"We are there to support them. We offer school time to get help," she added.
Ragsdale said she would encourage people to take college courses as quickly as they can.
"This would be a good experience for them," she added.
The first early college high school opened in Texas in 2003, and about 29 schools have opened with grant funding targeting disadvantaged districts.
Meanwhile, statistics have been released on the first graduates who have been tracked all the way through the ECHS programs, which started in 2002. Education Week reported 11 percent have graduated with an associate degree while 40 percent graduated with more than one year of college credit.
