Tri-County Early College is a project-based early college where students engaged in real-world, project-based learning while obtaining their Associates degree at the local community college.  The story is amazing, the result of a small number of educators wanting to provide students with an alternative learning environment that focused on who their students were, how they could be engaged, and the opportunity to extend their possible trajectories moving forward beyond school and their community.

Here from Ben Owens, one of the early educators who created this bottom-up enterprise along with Alissa Cheek, now Principal, and Cole Kordus, a graduate from TCEC whose life and future education was significantly impacted by his experience at TCEC.

The below were short video snippets from conversations with each.  At the bottom of this page is a link to a webpage hosting a recording of a longer webinar with all of them including Sara Hayes, another graduate from TCEC, and how TCEC impacted her life as well.

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Ben Owens
former Teacher at Tri-County Early College
now with Open Way Learning

​Alissa Cheek
Principal of Tri-County Early College

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Cole Kordus
Tri-County Early College Graduate on what he gained from going to TCEC

Cole Kordus on what he gained from project-based learning at TCEC

Link to Tri-County Early College

Link to full Webinar recording  and clips from the Webinar about Tri-County Early College with Ben Owens, Alissa Cheek, Cole Kordus, and Sara Hayes hosted by NExT, Northeastern University's Network for Experiential Teaching and Learning here:  https://tricountyearlycollege.next.northeasterncommons.org