CROTHERSVILLE — Walking up to a stage inside the Crothersville High School gymnasium Friday night to receive his diploma will be familiar territory for Jalen Gibson.

That’s because this past Saturday, he walked up to a stage set up in Columbus North High School’s gymnasium to receive a college diploma.

Gibson was among 10 of this year’s 23 Crothersville graduates completing the requirements of The University Academy.

The program offered by Ivy Tech Community College allows students from Crothersville and

Austin high schools an opportunity to receive a free associate degree to transfer to any state college or university. Graduating with a high school diploma and an associate degree at the same time saves thousands of dollars, gives them a chance to spend less time in college and jump-starts their career.

“We definitely helped each other with homework. We helped each other prepare for tests. We made sure that we all were working together, had everything caught up,” Gibson said. “We basically knew we were all working together to get to the same thing together.”

Experiencing a college graduation before he graduates from high school is something the 18-year-old will always remember.

“It was nice to know that everything I did, I was finally rewarded for it,” he said. “It was also interesting because we were the only high school students there, and all of the others were the Ivy Tech people that are graduating. … Nobody else in Jackson County has this program besides us, so that’s really cool, and especially since we’re a small school, it’s a big opportunity.”

This was the 10th year of the program, formerly known as the Austin Crothersville Early College Initiative. Starting their sophomore year, Crothersville and Austin students can take dual credit courses taught by qualified high school teachers and Ivy Tech professors.

“Ever since I was in school, I knew that I wanted to go to college, and then I heard that this basically helps with your first two years of college. I was like, ‘That’s the one I’m going to do,’” Gibson said.

He could tell he was taking college-level courses, which were held at Austin High School except for the latter part of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and resulted in switching to eLearning. At that point, professors conducted classes via Zoom once a week.

“This last year, we were finally able to have in-person professor classes. It actually helped a lot. I prefer that over Zoom classes,” Gibson said.

He was happy to finish strong and earn an associate degree.

“I’ll go into college with my first two years already out of the way, so I’ll only have to go four years to get my master’s, so that’s nice,” he said.

Gibson has attended Crothersville schools since he was in kindergarten.

In junior high, he was a member of FFA and two Academic Super Bowl teams and was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society.

For FFA, Gibson attended the national convention, made porkburgers at the Crothersville Red, White and Blue Festival, worked in the Young MacDonald’s Farm building during the Jackson County Fair, among other things.

He continued with FFA for his first three years of high school. He was chaplain one year and secretary another year.

“You just get to meet a lot of different people, and it’s a really interesting and fun experience,” he said of FFA. “I learned team skills, leadership skills, communication skills, learned how to organize stuff with different people.”

For Academic Super Bowl, Gibson was part of the math and science teams, which studied to prepare for the annual area competition.

“It was the first time I got challenged, and it was really interesting to see,” he said. “It was just fun because you got to go there and meet a bunch of people.”

As a sophomore, he was inducted into National Honor Society.

“I was raised on good grades and always do your best, so I always try to keep my grades up as high as I can,” Gibson said.

Another element of NHS is community service, and he earned part of his credits for that through volunteering for Jackson County United Way’s Day of Caring. One year, he helped with a project at Veterans Park in Crothersville, and this year, he helped put down mulch at Bard Street Park in town.

“It shows you how valuable it is to do community service and how helpful it is for everybody,” Gibson said.

His other high school activity was Science Club, which took field trips to nature preserves and other places.

Outside of school, Gibson is a manager at Hibbett Sports in Seymour. He started there in June 2021 and plans to transfer to the Terre Haute store later this year when he starts taking classes at Indiana State University.

There, he plans to major in computer science.

“It basically started when I was little. My brother showed me the first video game that he ever had, and I was like, ‘That’s really cool. I like those.’ Then over time, I have just become more and more fond of them, so I’m like, ‘I think I’ll design my own and think it would be really fun,’” Gibson said.

His ultimate career goal is to be a software designer.

“I’ve always loved basically technology in general, and then I’ve always liked the way certain things look on screens and stuff, so I was like, ‘You know what? I think I want to go for that,’” he said. “I just want to create applications and algorithms for certain people and certain companies.”

Before all of that, though, he has to get through high school graduation Friday night.

“It has definitely gone by fast, that’s for sure. Especially with COVID, I feel like it has gone by faster. I’m going to miss this, but it has been fun, nice people and I’m lucky to get in one of the classes … we’ve all been together since kindergarten really,” Gibson said. “I’m really ready to just go to college, experience new things. I’m ready to work because I love my job, so I’m ready to work there more and meet more people.”

Gibson file 

Name: Jalen Gibson

Age: 18

Hometown: Crothersville

Residence: Uniontown

Education: Graduating from Crothersville High School on Friday

School activities: FFA, National Honor Society, Science Club

Occupation: Works as a manager at Hibbett Sports in Seymour

Future plans: Major in computer science at Indiana State University to become a software designer

Family: Parents, Jacqueline and Jeremy Gibson; siblings, Jazlin and Skilaire

If you go

What: Crothersville High School graduation

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Where: Main gymnasium at Crothersville High School, 109 N. Preston St., Crothersville

Who: 23 members of the Class of 2022