Concurrent Diploma Program Helps Prepare Graduate for College and Life

By Leslie Cranford, Section Manager

TTU K-12 has international partnerships across the globe, from Vietnam to Brazil, to Haiti and more. Academic years begin and end at different times of the year, but the hundreds of international graduates produced by Texas Tech University High School have one commonality – the concurrent diploma they earn when they finish.

One of these recent graduates is Hugo Campos, who finished in December 2020 at the Open Center School, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo.

"Hugo was our high school student - one of the best! He graduated, and he says he misses the classes," said Izadora Marco, College Advising Program coordinator for Liberty Education. "He is applying to American universities. Hopefully he'll be accepted!"

Hugo says being able to study many subjects that he would not have been able to otherwise was what he enjoyed most in participating in the high school concurrent diploma program.

"For example, my favorite classes were Creative Writing, Public Speaking, and Economics, all of which are not offered in the Brazilian curriculum," he explained.

He added that the biggest challenge in the program was organizing all the work he had to do efficiently.

"The workload is pretty big, so I had to find a way of doing my assignments in a way which I did not get too tired and was able to keep up with the course."

Hugo believes that the experience is a very valuable one, learning not only what is being taught during classes, but also important lessons in organization and discipline.

"The courses are a lot of work and require a lot of responsibility and maturity, so those are areas which are greatly developed by the experience. I would say it is a great way of preparing for the more independent-style work of university," he said.

Although he is still unsure about what path specifically, one of Hugo's main goals for the future is to get to study at a university in the United States.

"I believe it will be a great experience both because of the high number of quality courses and because it will be my first time living alone, so I believe I will gain a lot of experience and be able to grow as a person," Hugo said. "I believe my application will be strengthened by the concurrent diploma, and the program taught me a lot of the discipline I will need when I eventually get there. Not only that, but it also helped me develop my English, as I was in constant contact with the language."

"This experience will definitely help me achieve my dream of studying in the U.S.," he added.