CANTON -- Area high school students can earn college credits through a new partnership with SUNY Canton and a $200,000 grant.

The college recently received the grant from the New York State Education Department to work with Ogdensburg Free Academy, Massena High School and St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES as part of the Smart Scholars Early College High School (ECHS) program.

This is a new program designed to give students the chance to accelerate high school studies while earning college credits at the same time, according to a recent press release from the New York State Education Department.

Students receive additional academic support from school and college partnerships to ensure they are at grade level and ready to participate in more rigorous collegiate courses. It works to increase high school graduation and college completion rates among those historically left in the gap, while reducing college tuition costs as a result of the more than 20 college credits earned in high school.

"Students who earn college credits in high school are more likely to graduate and successfully attend college," said SUNY Canton President Joseph L. Kennedy. "This program allows us to provide quality, career-oriented educational opportunities to local high school students while preparing them for future success at the college level. It's a win-win for everyone involved."

JoAnne M. Fassinger, grants coordinator at SUNY Canton, said, "In the program's first year, 90 total rising freshmen, sophomores and juniors will be eligible to participate. We want the younger students to see the success achieved by the older students obtaining dual enrollment credit."

The entering ninth graders will attend the program at Massena Central and Ogdensburg Free Academy High Schools beginning this coming school year. Teachers from participating high schools will teach the college-level credit-bearing courses.

"When they graduate high school and arrive for the first day of college, we do not want the experience to be a foreign one to them," said Adrienne C. Rygel, assistant professor in SUNY Canton's Canino School of Engineering Technology and the college's program coordinator. "This allows us to better acclimate these students by providing them with a seamless transition between high school and college."