Lakeview Centennial High School’s Magnet and Dual Credit advisor Timi Creekmore put together a surprise party, complete with cupcakes and balloons, for the 193 Class of 2018 seniors who participated in the Dual Credit program to celebrate their 5,910 hours of college credit.

Creekmore, a former DC teacher herself, felt especially passionate about celebrating the DC students success.

“I wanted to celebrate these kids for all the hard work they did,” she said. “Fifty-eight seniors graduating with their associate’s degree is a pretty big deal and I didn’t want it to fly under the radar.”

Of the 193 seniors who received a cupcake-filled surprise, Victoria Garcia felt especially happy about being celebrated.

“I worked hard for my 61 hours so to get some cupcakes on top of two years off of my college education was a nice surprise from Mrs. Creekmore,” she said.

Also among the DC soon to be graduates was aspiring EMT senior Robert Carroll-Linden, who will graduate with 77 college hours.

“I’m very happy with this surprise,” Carroll-Linden said. “It’s not much to some but to even get recognized is great. I worked extremely hard and now I’m a certified EMT, so I’m very excited for my future thanks to Dual Credit.”

Spread out amongst the 193 seniors in DC for the 2017-2018 school year is an average of 30 college course hours per student.

“I was shocked when we ran the numbers,” Creekmore said. “I knew there was a lot of them but once I got the exact amount it was truly eye-opening.”

Lakeview has over 30 available classes that are involved in DC or have a DC variation due to the Collegiate academy – without counting the courses available at the Gilbreath-Reed Career and Technical Center.

“No other school in Garland has as much emphasis on Dual Credit and its benefits,” Creekmore said.

The surprise party itself was similar to the yearly NMSI pep rally.

“If you look at some of these kids with like 76 hours they’re saving thousands of dollars, that’s a big deal,” Creekmore said. “This was the first year we’ve done this and hopefully it’s not the last. As it stands for the 2018-19 school year, we already have 945 students signed up for Dual Credit. That’s 40% of our school.”