PROVIDENCE – A pilot “dual enrollment” program between Rhode Island College and Mount Pleasant High School, designed to provide an early college experience to disadvantaged high school students, has received a $130,000 grant from The Nellie Mae Education Foundation.

The grant was announced today by the philanthropic organization and the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education.

Under the program, entitled Pathways Through College, 25 Mount Pleasant students are currently taking a college transition and preparatory course taught by RIC faculty members. They also are meeting twice a month with the state’s dual-enrollment coordinator.

The students will receive college credit for the college-prep class, which they attend twice a week at the high school, after school hours. Next, during the spring semester, the students will take four college-level courses before they graduate from Mount Pleasant in June.

“I am very pleased that the Nellie Mae Education Foundation has chosen to fund this important collaboration between Rhode Island College and Mount Pleasant High School,” said Jack R. Warner, the state commissioner of higher education. “This program will support our efforts to provide successful college experiences to students while they are still in high school and put them on a path to be more successful when they enroll in college full time.”

Nationwide, such “dual enrollment” programs – allowing high school students to take college-level courses, most typically during their junior and senior years of high school, for college credit – are being looked at as an option for helping students become better prepared for college and keeping them motivated.

“We are excited to be working with our partners in Rhode Island in this effort to remove the burdens that so many students encounter on the route between high school and college,” said Nicholas C. Donohue, president and CEO of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation. “With Pathways Through College, we are working to make pragmatic, systemic changes that aim to increase high school graduation rates and postsecondary aspirations, especially for learners who have been traditionally underserved.”

Rhode Island College was founded in 1854 as the R.I. State Normal School and renamed the R.I. College of Education in 1920. It took its current name in 1960, when it broadened its curriculum beyond education. RIC now enrolls about 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students, in courses and programs both on and off campus. To learn more, visit www.ric.edu.

The Nellie Mae Education Foundation, founded in 1998, describes itself as the largest philanthropy in New England that focuses exclusively on promoting access, quality and effectiveness of education. To learn more, visit www.nmefdn.org.