The Westfield Promise program is a partnership between Holyoke High School and Westfield State University in which students at Holyoke High take college courses during their junior year on the HHS campus. The classes are taught by a high school teacher and a college professor. This year, there are only two classes like this, one English class taught by Mr. Courchesne and a History class taught by Mr. Bechard. By senior year, the students take classes at Westfield State, graduating high school with 12 college credits that are transferable. Not only that, but the courses are completely free. On top of the 12 college credits and the free classes, they are given preferential admissions to Westfield State after their high school graduation.

On October 9th, two students in the Westfield Promise Program, Brendan Leahy ‘19 and Dominick Garcia ‘19, went to a Westfield State board of trustees meeting to convince them to give more funding to the program. It was very intimidating for two high school students to go in front of  a board of trustees, but they did a great job. “It was a very scary thing to ask two students to do,” said Mr. Courchesne, “but they both did extremely well.”

Brendan Leahy ‘19, member of the Westfield Promise Program, believes it should continue to be funded because it is a huge help to the students. “It was a great experience being able to talk to the board of trustees and Dr. Torrecilha about the Westfield Promise Program. I was happy to express to them how much I’ve enjoyed it,” said Leahy. Also, in the meeting, Dominick Garcia ‘19 told the board of trustees that he felt more prepared to go to college now than he would have if he hadn’t been a part of this program.

The Westfield Promise Program is not only available to Holyoke High students. This Program is also available at two schools in Westfield and two schools in Springfield. The President of Westfield State hopes to expand this program even further. Brendan and Dominick did a great job representing Holyoke High, and, in the future, Holyoke High hopes to have more than two classes available for their students. The Westfield Promise Program is an amazing opportunity for high school students to become prepared for college and Holyoke High is glad to be a part of it.