College rolls out OC Promise program

Superintendent of Andrews Independent School District Bobby Azam speaks during the kickoff event announcing the Odessa College Promise program Tuesday morning at the OC Sports Center. (Odessa American/Eli Hartman)

With a band and dancers and plenty of enthusiasm, Odessa College kicked off the OC Promise program Tuesday in the main gym of the Sports Center.

The program is designed to ensure that a college education becomes a reality for students and that funding is not a barrier for those who choose OC.

The program is designed to ensure that a college education is a reality and funding is not a barrier for students who choose Odessa College.

The inaugural class of the OC Promise program will be the high school graduating classes of 2024 throughout the Odessa College service area. There were about 1,000 people in attendance including about 170 sophomores.

Vice President for Academic Partnerships at Odessa College Jonathan Fuentes speaks to the student bodies of Odessa Collegiate Academy and Odessa Career and Technical Early College High School during a kickoff announcing the Odessa College Promise program Tuesday morning at the OC Sports Center. The OC Promise program is scholarship opportunity that covers the cost of tuition and fees for the eligible class of 2024 high school graduates. Eligible students for the program include high school seniors living in the Odessa College Service area who will graduate in the Class of 2024. (Odessa American/Eli Hartman)

The student bodies of Odessa Career and Technical Early College High School (OCTECHS) and Odessa Collegiate Academy (OCA) were on hand.

Speakers included OC President Gregory Williams, Ector County ISD Superintendent Scott Muri and Roseline “Rose” Acuña, a 17-year-old student at Odessa Collegiate Academy and future UTPB student on the Falcon Free scholarship.

Also, Andrews ISD Superintendent Bobby Azam, University of Texas Permian Basin President Sandra Woodley, Adrian Vega, executive director of the Education Partnership of the Permian Basin, and Odessa Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Renee Earls. Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, also was in attendance.

Vega asked everyone in the audience to pledge that they would stay the course, do the best they could, complete their education and help their community.

Earls noted that it was not too long ago that Odessan Ray Perryman, president and CEO of the Perryman Group, said, “We will need at least 50,000 more skilled and educated employees by 2050.”

“That’s less than 30 years. In less than three decades. we will need an additional 50,000 employees to fill the jobs that we have here in Odessa and the Permian Basin. And with the Odessa College Promise we are one step closer to having those skilled and educated employees,” Earls said.

She added that Odessa has many companies considering coming to town.

“We’ve had commitments from companies coming here. We have current companies who need employees today, but we have other companies who are coming to our area that need tens of thousands of employees. Those employees need to have skills. They need to have knowledge and they need some type of degree post high school,” Earls said.

When companies come to look at Odessa to see if they want to move here, they ask several questions, one of which is about education and what’s offered not only through the local school districts in the region, but through the community college and UTPB, she said.

“We are proud to say that we have first-class institutions here and now, as several of the speakers have said, money is now not an excuse. There is really no excuse not to get a college degree,” Earls said.

Azam, superintendent of Andrews ISD, said the OC Promise opportunity is monumental.

President of Odessa College Greg Williams speaks to the student bodies of Odessa Collegiate Academy and Odessa Career and Technical Early College High School during a kickoff announcing the Odessa College Promise program Tuesday morning at the OC Sports Center. The OC Promise program is scholarship opportunity that covers the cost of tuition and fees for the eligible class of 2024 high school graduates. Eligible students for the program include high school seniors living in the Odessa College Service area who will graduate in the Class of 2024. (Odessa American/Eli Hartman)

“… What that does for us is everything that we’ve tried to do for our kids to finish dual credit, to finish anything higher ed, any of our programs that require continued education past even dual credit in high school, it helps us bridge that gap so that there’s really no barrier, meaning there’s no issue of again telling us anymore, I can’t go or I can’t do …,” Azam said.

OC Promise is a solution to that problem.

“… Every kid now has an opportunity to go. So the reason it’s monumental for everyone, but especially the regional … areas like ours is because we don’t have the ability to get kids on Odessa College’s campus … So what we have to do is come up with as many programs as we can, get them as close as we can. But we were still losing a few kids because they’re saying, well, I can’t afford it after I get out of high school. So now, that nudge, that push to get them to finish is incredible,” Azam said.

“… We finally have the ability for kids to stay here and get a four-year degree … So it’s incredible. It really helps. They don’t realize how much it helps the rural areas. And obviously it’s going to help the ECISD schools and that’s fantastic and it needs to, but what it does for the rural schools is monumental,” he added.

Acuña, an Odessa Collegiate Academy student, said she thinks OC Promise is a great program.

“… I believe everyone should have a chance to get a free education, just as myself. There shouldn’t be the barrier of having money issues, of not being able to go to college. Everyone should want to join college,” Acuña said.

Jerry Howton, a 16-year-old OCA student, said he hopes to utilize the program when he goes to college.

“I think it’s a very generous opportunity,” Howton said.

He added that he thinks it will encourage more students to go to college.

OC Vice President for Academic Partnerships Jonathan Fuentes said the college is incredibly grateful and excited about the support they have received in rolling out the OC Promise program.

Elma Reyes, center, and Norma Carrillo, right, hand out pom poms to Odessa Collegiate Academy and Odessa Career and Technical Early College High School students before the start of a kickoff announcing the Odessa College Promise program Tuesday morning at the OC Sports Center. (Odessa American/Eli Hartman)

“We know that if we are going to move the needle on educational attainment and on the needs that we have for industry, we know that it’s going to take the whole region working together. And we know that we’re going to remove the cost as the barrier for so many students across the region,” Fuentes said.

Fuentes added that they thought it was really important to get rid of the No. 1 barrier of money.

“Again, when we speak to students this is what we often hear. So we’re grateful to remove this barrier and to work with students to bring them here, to train them up, educate them and put them back into the workforce,” Fuentes said.

He added that when they talk to industry partners they have found that businesses are looking for people that have the skills to go to work.

“… But they really need to be trained and educated in a post secondary program,” Fuentes said.