Junior Takes Different Course To College Credit

By Karly Izer/Staff Writer

Managing a normal day of high school is challenging enough, but junior Christina Brammer is doing the ultimate challenge by taking online college classes along with her normal high school education. 

Over the summer, Christina took a speech class from Iowa Community College Consortium and a General Chemistry class from UNI. These online classes are getting her ahead and preparing her for college life. 

“My goal is to get a major in electrical engineering at UNI, so getting ahead as much as I can is what I’m concentrating on,” Christina said. “Instead of taking the AP classes here at the high school where you are not guaranteed to get the college credit if you don’t pass the test, I think that taking these online classes will really help me get ahead and start working right away after college.”

There were many questions as to if this was the best decision for her, but dad, Michael Brammer, was confident that this was what was going to get her ahead and ready. “I believed Christina was ready for college classes since she has a good idea of what she wants to major in,” Michael says. “She also did very well with the honors classes she took her sophomore year at the high school, and the classes were an excellent preparation for college level work. The stress on the forced schedule at the high school was not healthy for her, and she would have repeated that same scenario this year if she had stayed with high school classes.”

Apart from getting ahead, Christina is getting a preview of what college work entails and how she has to plan her time to get everything done. She has the advantage over other students that are not taking extra college classes because she knows what to expect when she gets to college. One of the main concerns for her is keeping up with her regular high school classes.

“You have to manage your time really well,” Brammer said. “For the online classes I took, you had a week to get a certain amount of assignments done, so you can not procrastinate.” 

Also, keeping up with grades is something that Brammer seems to be handling well. “I am satisfied with the grades I’m maintaining. This year I took on a much lighter class load because I already have the credits I need, so a lot of my classes are electives, and I have two study halls, so I have opportunites to get my class work done at school.”

Brammer plans on taking more online college classes this fall. She is going to take a C++ course for an advanced computer language program that focuses on hardware and operating systems. This course is offered through Iowa Community College, along with a Calculus II class that she’ll take, which is based on physics. Christina will also be taking a college Geography class later this semester which will meet the requirements for Iowa’s standards in Social Studies. All of these classes are very advanced and will challenge Brammer to work her hardest to accomplish her goal of being prepared and ready for her engineering career. 

Michael has always been active and involved in his children’s education and also in the education opportunities in the state. “The Iowa Community College Consortium is not well publicized, but it is an excellent opportunity for high school students to gain college level credit without having the leave the CFHS campus during the school day,” he says. “ Access to UNI is also a great advantage for CFHS students.” 

Only time will tell what’s ahead for Christina, but she’s definitely prepared for what her future will bring.