ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Petersburg Collegiate High School North Pinellas celebrated and unprecedented first: 100 percent of its graduating seniors also earned their associate's degree.

What You Need To Know

  • St. Petersburg Collegiate High School North Pinellas' graduating seniors all also earned their associate's degree

  • With the rising cost of tuition, this program helps a lot of students save money on higher education

  • The students essentially attend St. Petersburg College full time in their junior and senior years — something that graduating seniors Eddy Elnahao and Alexandra Hooker say prepared them for their next step

The school's principal, Ryan Halstead, said he couldn't be more proud.

"Especially with the chaos of coming out of a pandemic, the different learning environments students were exposed to, from hybrid learning to online learning, and all those, I’m very proud of our class of 2024 for the first to do it," he said.

With the rising cost of tuition, this program helps a lot of students save money on higher education, and they say that working together to achieve the same goal keeps them focused.

Eddy Elnahao showed off his new high school diploma, but that’s not all he received when he graduated in May — he also earned his associate’s degree.

“I’d rather be done earlier and faster rather than taking longer, because I want to pursue dentistry, so it takes longer to go to school,” he said. “I’d rather take those four years into two years so I can save time.”

That was a big benefit to attending this school for Elnahao’s classmate, Alexandra Hooker, too. They are two of 67 seniors in their graduating class who all earned their associate’s degrees.

“Being in a program like this that was everyone’s goal, everyone was working towards it, so it was nice to do that with people who also cared about doing it at the same time as me,” said senior Alexandra Hooker. “It’s nice that it relieves a little bit of a financial burden, of course.”

Students here essentially attend St. Petersburg College full time in their junior and senior years — something Elnahao and Hooker say prepared them for their next step.

“All the hard work and dedication, it truly does pay off, so I feel like that’s such a great thing to see that everyone got their high school diploma, and their AA degree,” Elnahao said.

And as the saying goes, “Believe you can, and you’re halfway there,” is something this 2024 class is proof of.

St. Petersburg Collegiate High School North Pinellas is a charter school that’s partnered with St. Petersburg College and allows students to earn their high school diplomas while simultaneously earning an associate’s degree and a Bright Futures scholarship — all for free.