A total of 321 area high school seniors earned the right to wear blue and gold honor cords from Mid-Plains Community College at their graduation ceremonies this spring. That’s up from 260 seniors last year and 225 seniors in 2017.

Becky Barner, MPCC area career coach, said a number of factors have contributed to the increase.

“Since we started distributing cords a couple of years ago, we’ve had a lot of high school students who make it their goal to receive that cord upon graduation,” said Barner. “The college also has made it a point to be flexible about the delivery of college classes and increasing the number of classes available through online and distance learning methods – making them more accessible to high school students. In addition, high schools are making it a priority to get their high school staff qualified and approved to teach college-level courses, which means those teachers can teach college classes right in their own high schools.”

The purpose of the cords is to recognize students who have taken the initiative to pursue college credit while still in high school.

To earn a cord, students must have successfully completed 12 or more credit hours of college classes through MPCC.

The following list shows how many seniors from area schools received honor cords this year.

Anselmo-Merna – 4

Ansley – 1

Arnold – 5

Arthur County – 7

Brady – 4

Broken Bow– 23

Callaway – 10

Chase County – 8

Cody-Kilgore – 1

Dundy County-Stratton – 2

GED student – 1

Hayes Center – 1

Hershey – 9

Homeschool – 4

Keya Paha County – 1

Maxwell – 1

Maywood – 2

McCook – 27

North Platte – 94

North Platte St. Pat’s  – 22

Ogallala – 22

Paxton – 9

Perkins County – 6

Sandhills – 1

Sargent – 3

South Platte – 1

Southwest – 7

Stapleton – 2

Sutherland – 7

Thedford  – 6

Valentine  – 15

Wallace – 8

Wauneta-Palisade – 4

More information about MPCC’s Early Entry program is available online at http://www.mpcc.edu/student-resources/credit-systems.