Local high school students are entering Texas Tech through a unique program that grants them free college credit and other types of support.

Caliyah Carter, a sophomore pre-nursing student, was in elementary school when Texas Tech University received its first East Lubbock Promise Neighborhood grant, focused on developing resources in an underserved part of the city.

Eight years later she has come to campus from Estacado High School with 52 college credits completely free of charge, from what is now the Early College High School (ECHS) partnership between Texas Tech Online and Lubbock Independent School District (LISD).

Living with her mom, a single mother of seven with two still at home, Caliyah helps take care of her 12-year-old brother. Daily she goes to classes and works full time as a manager at Taco Villa, a regional restaurant chain. She’s been successfully handling that tough schedule since she was 16 as well as being involved in student council, Junior ROTC and National Honor Society. 

“Caliyah’s story, I think is unique among maybe 95% of Texas Tech students,” said Christiana Christofides, managing director for Texas Tech Online. “But it's not unique for Estacado. Her story is very much what is happening with most of the students in the early college high school program. We choose one graduate each year to be the recipient of the Estacado Ambassadorial Scholarship; this year it’s Caliyah, as she was an exemplary graduate of this program.”

Meet Christofides and find out more about ECHS in this episode of Texas Tech’s “Fearless” podcast.

The ECHS program moved from the College of Education where the grant originated, to Texas Tech Online in fall 2021. The staff met the program with new energy and launched an enhancement plan, including professional development opportunities for faculty, adding/changing course offerings, bringing the students to campus and having admissions, financial aid and other campus entities engage with the students.

Now a Red Raider, Caliyah says her favorite part of the high school program was being an early college ambassador. 

“We got to meet with Texas Tech ambassadors and ask them different questions regarding college, and they were able to give the best answers,” Caliyah said.

About one-third of the senior class in the ECHS program at Estacado came to Texas Tech this fall. Caliyah chose Texas Tech because she wanted to stay close to family, and she was already familiar with Texas Tech’s website. She added that the most beneficial courses to her current degree plan were the core classes offered like English, math and the sciences; history was also a strong part of the program. She would suggest more career-based courses and letting students take specific classes toward their desired degree as possible improvements. Christofides and her team take student feedback such as this seriously and have been working to implement new course offerings as soon as spring 2025.

Caliyah also has family success helping to lead her way. She joined ECHS because three of her brothers were in the program, and the experience helped them when going to college. 

Two of those brothers chose to be Red Raiders. DeLauren Gordon graduated from Texas Tech’s College of Media & Communication in May 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations & Strategic Communications Management. He is now pursuing a master’s in mass communication/sports communication. Domynik Carter is Class of 2021, with a B.A. from the School of Music in Texas Tech’s J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts, and a former member of the Goin’ Band from Raiderland.

According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), an early college high school must target and enroll students who are both least likely to attend college and economically disadvantaged. A large majority of Estacado High School students meet these requirements, making it the ideal choice for the school-within-a-school model of the ECHS programs across the state.

TEA-specific goals of Early College High Schools include: 

• Enroll historically underserved students, targeting at-risk and economically disadvantaged  
• Provide dual credit at no cost to students
• Offer rigorous instruction and accelerated courses
• Provide academic and social support services to help students succeed
• Provide students with highly personalized attention
• Increase college readiness
• Partner with Texas institutions of higher education to reduce barriers to college access

The partnership with Texas Tech Online is one of few in the nation that includes a Carnegie Tier One university and is the only one of its kind in the Big 12. This ECHS program gives students the opportunity to begin earning college credit in their 10th-grade year and up to 60 hours – tuition-free – by the time they graduate from high school, a value of up to $40,000. Students are admitted through an application process, with additional requirements for those outside of the Estacado High School attendance zone. The Estacado ECHS is offered only to students within LISD. 

Inclusion in the program gives students exposure to college prior to attending. They are provided resources to guide them, take field trips to the Texas Tech campus and interact with current students. In addition to community service opportunities, the scholars take classes with other goal-driven students who aspire to attend college and receive assistance with college applications, scholarships and FAFSA, the free form that allows students to apply for federal grants, work-study programs, loans and scholarships for college, career school or graduate school. 

Christofides reiterates that these high school students take Texas Tech classes taught by university professors on the Estacado High School campus. There is zero cost to the student no matter how many courses they take, which is a huge part of what makes it different from other dual-credit programs at other high schools in the area. 

“We have been working to bring Estacado juniors and seniors to campus once a year and have them actually attend a class,” Christofides said. “We bring the English class to campus, and last year they did their final presentation. Caliyah was in English, so she got to experience that.”

Christofides says they’re also getting more involvement from other parts of the Texas Tech community to assist and engage these students, including working with Admissions, Student Activities Board, the Career Center and Financial Aid.

The ECHS team is asking Financial Aid to focus more this year on how many of these students can qualify for the Red Raider Guarantee because that would continue to pay for all tuition and mandatory fees. 

“They should qualify based on the fact that they already have to be a certain socioeconomic status to be in the early college high school program, and that should qualify them for Red Raider Guarantee, too,” Christofides said. “We're working to find helpful things that apply specifically to this group of students.”

Caliyah’s career goal is to become a nursing administrator by finishing her pre-requisites and going straight into nursing school at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, pending acceptance. To get there, she’s faced challenges that have not been insurmountable, thanks in part to the assistance of the ECHS partnership with Texas Tech and a lot because of her own resourcefulness and persistence. 

“I would say the only challenge I had was adjusting to the change from high school to college,” Caliyah said. “And to other students looking to continue to college after graduation, I would say be prepared for the real world to hit you and hold on.

“I do believe the early college program did make it possible, though. I wouldn’t have gone to college if I wasn’t in this program. I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford all four years without it.”