By KAYLA J. MARSH
Staff Writer
HAZLET – Brookdale Community College has unanimously approved two new higher education partnerships when the school sealed agreements with the Hazlet Township School District and Georgian Court University.
At a May 17 Board of Trustees meeting held at the community college’s Hazlet campus at 1 Crown Plaza, Brookdale’s Vice President for Learning, Matthew Reed, said that the new partnerships expand academic opportunities for local high school and college students and creates new pathways to a college degree attainment.
“A colleague of mine likes to say that Brookdale is where we are, college is what we do and community is why we do it,” he said. “I see the outreach to Raritan High School and Georgian Court University as sort of stitching together a community of educators to serve Monmouth County in a really clear and distinct way.”
The partnership between Brookdale and the Hazlet Township School District establishes the Explorer Program–Early College Academy. Raritan High is located in Hazlet while Georgian Court’s campus is in Lakewood.
The initiative, slated to begin this September, is intended to provide eligible Raritan High School students, beginning in the ninth grade, the chance to earn an associate’s degree in social science while they also concurrently earn their high school diploma.
“We are delighted to work with Raritan High School to help the students build and identify an interest in getting an associate’s degree [and] to get their degree before they graduate high school,” Reed said. “Students coming through Raritan High are going to get an opportunity that very few students in New Jersey ever get.
“It is a way to cut down on the student debt, it is a way to serve the community and it is a way to make the pathway forward clearer.”
The first two years of the program will be offered by Raritan High School, the junior year of the program will be offered at Brookdale’s Hazlet campus and senior year will be offered on Brookdale’s main campus on Newman Springs Road in Lincroft.
“We had a dream when we started … and to have the capacity to offer graduates an associate degree is astounding,” said Bernard Bragen Jr., superintendent of Schools for the Hazlet Township School District.
“It is a dream come true for us as well as for our community and I want to thank … everyone that worked so hard.
“Initially when we came together we weren’t sure we could pull it off and everyone’s been so cooperative and working together.
“I think it is a dynamic option to offer to our students in this community.”
The second partnership officially establishes the Brookdale – Georgian Court University Partnership at Brookdale’s Hazlet campus.
“This is just a wonderful opportunity and we are just very excited here at Georgian Court to extend what has been a long and lasting partnership,” said Georgian Court University President Joseph R. Marbach.
“We have some 1,500 Georgian Court alum who have some tie or connection to Brookdale … and we appreciate that partnership and what the Hazlet campus offers us.”
The new partnership builds on an existing articulation agreement between the two schools. Enrolled students study under Georgian Court University faculty at Brookdale’s Hazlet campus and will be able to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the university.
“Partnerships are becoming the norm and it is great to be piloting a partnership that allows a student to complete a high school diploma and an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in one location,” Marbach said.
“It is part of our accessibility and affordability agenda, it is something we both share as institutions as part of our goals and we are just so pleased to partner with Brookdale.”
Through the new partnership, which is also slated to begin in September, Brookdale graduates will receive a guaranteed tuition discount as high as 45 percent of the tuition rate in effect upon enrolling at Georgian Court University.
“We have had a long-standing and very successful partnership with Georgian Court,” Reed said. “From our perspective we wanted to allow our partners to offer a greater range of programs, offer more opportunities for our students.
“We noticed that when we have a single partner at a location, instead of multiple partners at a location, students identify with that partner much more quickly. We want to make sure that the pathway is clear.”