RANDOLPH -- Rather than slowing their performance as they near graduation most Rich High School seniors are picking up the pace -- along with college credit.

In 2006, the school graduated 60 percent of its seniors with associate's degrees thanks to a concurrent enrollment program. "This is a huge incentive for underclassmen to get serious," Rich School District Superintendent Dale Lamborn said. "The concept to coast has changed."

Since the school, which has about 150 students, began participating in the program in the early 1990s, an average of 46 percent of seniors have graduated with a high school diploma and a two-year college degree.

Utah has made this dual graduation possible through concurrent enrollment -- a program which allows students to earn credit for college level courses while still attending classes in high school.

In addition to the two-year degree, these students are given the opportunity to attend an in-state university with 75 percent of their tuition paid thanks to the New Century Scholarship program.

Although larger districts in northern Utah already take advantage of the concurrent enrollment program offered through Utah State University, smaller districts like West Side in Dayton, Idaho, are looking to Rich for guidance in graduating their students with associates degrees.

Even for students who had no intentions of completing 60 credit hours of classes during their last two years of high school, Lamborn said the program enabled the rural school, in a town of nearly 500 people, to offer more classes despite a limited budget.

"It has leveled the playing field," Lamborn said. "Our kids are getting what students at big schools get."

Only those who finish their sophomore year with a 3.0 grade point average are invited to participate in the program.

Some students have to enroll in summer courses to complete the full 60 credits required for the two-year degree as well as their high school graduation requirements.

Students say between the school work and other activities it leaves little time to indulge in "senioritis" -- a term often used to explain a high school senior's apathy in their final year as a student.

"We don't just see the end of high school," said Jenni Gomez, a senior at Rich High who is also on the cheerleading squad. "We see the beginning of college."

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D3.