Dual purpose

Dual purpose

UC's College and Career Tracks empower high school students to explore careers in Allied Health

Several benefits motivate high school students to participate in dual enrollment programs: Not only can participants get a head start on college and potentially reduce future tuition expenses, but they can also explore career pathways and degrees before declaring a major. College Credit Plus (CCP), for example, is Ohio's statewide dual enrollment program that enables qualified students in seventh through 12th grades to earn high school and college credit simultaneously through partnerships with their high school and a college or university, including the University of Cincinnati.

While the benefits of dual enrollment programs are clear, it can be difficult for high school students to know which courses to take based on their interests and how those credits will transfer to their future college transcript. To eliminate the guesswork for high school students and guidance counselors, UC offers College and Career Tracks - curated collections of recommended classes designed to introduce students to specific college degrees or career fields. Launch UC, the university's innovative early college enrollment program that connects high school students to credit-bearing opportunities including dual enrollment, advanced placement and international baccalaureate, partnered with UC faculty to establish the tracks.

Kelsey Huelse Associate director of student recruitment, CAHS Student Affairs

"High school guidance counselors are not dual credit academic advisers. They know what classes that students need to graduate high school, but students often come to UC with credits that don't align with their chosen major," says Kelsey Huelse, associate director of student recruitment at UC's College of Allied Health Sciences (CAHS). "Now we can give guidance counselors these prescribed pathways that help them easily identify which courses a student should take based on their interests and the majors they want to explore."

Inspiring students to explore health careers

Since launching the first College and Career Track in September 2024, UC has expanded its offerings to 28 tracks (and counting), all of which enable students enrolled in CCP to complete up to 30 credits. Each track consists of two tiers, with five to six courses per tier, and all course credits are applicable toward an undergraduate degree at UC (and may also satisfy requirements for majors at other universities or colleges). For each tier a student completes, they'll earn a digital pennant from the track's associated college. UC's CCP program is the first dual enrollment program in the country to offer this type of recognition.

Of the 28 available tracks, eight are aligned to majors offered through CAHS, and two additional tracks will be developed for the college's Social Work and Medical Laboratory Science undergraduate degrees. The pre-medicine track, which was the first College and Career Track made available to students, is the most popular CAHS track with more than 20 participants, three of whom earned a digital pennant for completing the first tier in the fall of 2025.

"Some of the pathways, like pre-medicine, might already be familiar to students, but what really excites me are the tracks that promote our more niche majors, like Nutrition and Dietetics and Speech Language Hearing Sciences," says Lauren McCants, senior assistant dean of student affairs at CAHS. "We've been working to figure out how to help prospective students learn about these lesser-known but very impactful career options, and this is one of the ways we're getting the message out - by putting information in the hands of families, students and guidance counselors."

Early engagement shows that this promotion strategy is working. Some of the most popular courses among UC's CCP students include personal nutrition and medical terminology, both of which are featured in several of the CAHS tracks. This intentional overlap of courses within different tracks helps ensure that students can apply the credits they earn to a variety of degrees, should they decide to pivot their area of study before declaring their major.

Program directors within CAHS partnered with the Launch UC team to determine which courses should be included in the tracks associated with CAHS majors. This process even prompted CAHS to begin developing alternative modalities (including asynchronous online formats) for certain intro-level courses to increase access to those participating in UC's dual enrollment programs.

Increasing access to college-level education

Increasing access to college-level education is a primary goal for the Launch UC team, which partners with more than 40 high schools throughout Ohio and Kentucky. Each partnering high school offers at least one embedded course within the school building that's led by a teacher who is credentialed through CCP and supported by UC faculty.

"We've established a direct partnership between our faculty and the high school instructors to ensure that the same level of rigor and learning objectives are being met," says UC academic adviser Natalie Musolf, who helped establish the College and Career tracks as the primary project manager on the Launch UC team. "The embedded model is the most popular and accessible way for students to interact with our CCP courses."

In fact, according to data collected in collaboration with Cincinnati Public Schools, male students, student athletes and students who are eligible for free or reduced lunch are 35% more likely to participate in CCP at UC when offered the option to participate in an embedded capacity.

The Launch UC team is focused on increasing both the number of partnering high schools and the types of courses offered in an embedded capacity at those high schools. In September 2025, the second embedded College and Career Track - and the first aligned to a CAHS major - was established at Williamsburg High School, located about 30 miles east of Cincinnati, enabling students to earn up to 30 credits and two digital pennants within the pre-medicine track without having to leave the building.

In addition to increasing high school students' access to education, the Launch UC and CCP teams are increasing their readiness for college. Each CCP student is paired with an adviser, and eligible students can attend select courses online or in person at UC's Uptown, Blue Ash and Clermont campuses. Engaging in these formats helps CCP students develop relationships with UC faculty and build critical skills needed to succeed in college, such as how to best manage their time and advocate for their needs.

In alignment with data from the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, UC retention data shows that this additional readiness sets students up for long-term success. Students who participate in CCP at UC and then matriculate at the university have nearly 7% higher retention rates across all forms of award, and for under-represented minority students who participated in CCP, that number jumps to 25%.

As a former high school teacher turned academic adviser, Musolf brings a deep understanding of the advantages of participating in dual enrollment programs, including CCP. And as someone who participated in CCP herself but with little support, Musolf has an even deeper passion for helping students explore career options more intentionally through pathways like College and Career Tracks.

"There's a lot of power in educating students on how to align their College Credit Plus courses with their future major and helping them work out all the kinks while they're still in high school and have that support system around them," Musolf says. "We're really excited about what we're seeing. In the first year, we had more than 150 students enrolled in the College and Career Track program, and in the fall, we awarded 22 digital pennants. Our goal is to engage closer to 500 students by the two-year mark."

Interested in dual credit at UC?

Katie Coburn

Writer

[email protected]

Related Stories