TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Deciding what to do after high school can be difficult, but a new initiative by the Indiana Department of Education has Indiana State providing new opportunities for high school students.
Indiana Governor Mike Braun has recently announced new partnerships with higher education, businesses, and military, hoping to form a more direct path for high school students to their future goals.
Indiana State is following that initiative, offering high school students a chance to earn automatic admission and a scholarship from their high school diploma.
Indiana State President Mike Godard said the diploma is called the Enrollment Honors Plus Seal.
“Any student who completes this, during their high school career, would have automatic admission into Indiana State University”, Godard said. “In addition to that, we will offer all of those students a $3,000 a year, renewable, scholarship, up to those four years of earning their undergraduate degree here.”
Along with the Enrollment Honors Plus Seal, students who complete the Employment or Enlistment Honors Plus Seal, with a 2.5 or above GPA, will also receive automatic admission.
Vice President of Enrollment Management at ISU, Maribeth Stevens, said the latter two diplomas focus on out of the classroom experience.
“We believe, here at Indiana State, that those experiences will provide students with an opportunity to excel here in a higher education setting in the future as well”, Stevens said. “Those opportunities certainty instill discipline and leadership skills that will translate to higher education in the student’s future.”
President Godard believes these changes will allow more students to attend Indiana State that otherwise couldn’t.
“We do think these more distinct pathways really will allow students that opportunity to focus in on what’s in front of them and hopefully see, very early on, that college is their trajectory and where they want to go”, Godard said.
Per statute, Indiana’s current graduation requirements will end October 1st of 2028, making the new diploma requirements effective for all students beginning with the class of 2029.
