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After earning 18 credit hours through dual-credit classes at Southeast Community College, Seward High School senior Mckenna Kisela is way ahead of her peers.

"I was never fully aware of the number of classes that were offered through SCC until my sophomore year," Kisela said. "My counselor, Mr. (Kevin) Fields, never failed to push me to take challenging courses, along with more than one at a time. His encouragement and confidence helped motivate me to break through the mental barriers stopping me from pushing myself in a higher-level class."

"I'm proud of her and many of her classmates who prove to themselves that they can pass college-level work while in high school and complete many credit hours to transfer into the colleges they choose,” Fields said.

Through the Southeast Nebraska Career Academy Partnership (SENCAP), Kisela took classes like Intro to Psychology, Criminal Justice, College Algebra, Public Speaking and more. In addition, Kisela also took more classes through Concordia University such as Spanish IV, Environmental Science, World Literature, and Writing and Research.

"Combining the credit hours from Concordia and Southeast, it totals 30 hours," she said. "In the past four years, this is by far my biggest academic accomplishment."

In addition to academics, Kisela was also part of the first girls wrestling team at Seward, which started last year. As a result, she will also be an inaugural member of SCC's women's wrestling team at the Beatrice Campus beginning this fall.

"I never once thought I would be wrestling, let alone in college," she said. "I toured the campus and was able to speak with coach Terry Pack. I loved the campus and found coach Pack to be dedicated, committed and enthusiastic about SCC's new wrestling program. After a long conversation with my mother, I made the decision to sign with SCC Beatrice to wrestle."

Kisela plans to be an Academic Transfer student while at SCC, then hopes to transfer to another college to study elementary education. Meanwhile, she advises current high school students to take advantage of things like SENCAP/Dual Credit and be one step closer to completing a degree.

"SENCAP/Dual Credit is the perfect opportunity to save time and money on college while in high school," she said. "These classes also provide the eye-opening experience of college-level work. I don't know who would not want to enter the next chapter of their life one step ahead."

SENCAP is in partnership with 47 school districts throughout SCC's 15-county service area, offering several academies, including Agriculture, Business, Construction, Criminal Justice, Education, Health Sciences, Information Technology, and Manufacturing in Energy and Welding.