Tucked away behind Ratcliffe Stadium and across the street from Fresno City College is Design Science High School. Six plain, beige trailers house the classrooms where freshmen, sophomores and juniors gather in groups, do their homework, listen to lectures and socialize with their fellow students just like in any other high school.

Unlike other high schools, though, these students also attend many of their classes alongside real college students.

The program is designed to provide  a higher education experience to Central Valley high school students by putting them in college classes where they sit in lecture halls alongside regular college students. To try to make the experience as real as possible for the high schoolers, not even college instructors know who the high school students are.

“We want the students to have as much of a true college experience as possible,” said Roy Exum, principal of the Design Science High School. “If we go out and identify them, there might be some bias.”

The program, one of the only college preparation programs in Central California, started nine years ago with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and with help from  FCC administrators. Exum has been the principal of the program for those nine years and has been a part of the success of the program.

Exum says the goal of the program is to “give them [students] a taste of what a true on-the-college-campus class is going to feel like.”

The program consists of 250 Fresno Unified School District students who are randomly picked, lottery fashion.

The Freshman start at the Design Science campus taking classes from core high school curriculum, similar to what other high schools offer. Design Science students also  take classes designed to prepare students for what they will encounter when they start taking college classes at  FCC. The instructors of the classes at Design Science let them know what to expect from college classes and how they can maximize success through the program.

As the students spend more time in the program, they’re able to take more classes on the FCC campus in their sophomore, junior and senior years.

Exum said he believes the program benefits students immensely.

“These kids come into an environment where it’s rigorous, it’s college focused and they’re supported all though the program,” he said.

Additionally, “through the State Center Community College District  board’s guidance, they [students] have waived fees for high school enrichment,” Exum said. Fresno Unified pays for the books and all fees associated with college classes.

Deborah Henell has worked as a counselor in the program for four years and knows the struggles students can go through while prepping for the transition from high school to college.

Henell said most Design Science High School students are the first in their families to attend college.

“The idea of going to college was not something they thought was a possibility,” Henell said.

“The program allows them to see that it is doable, that there are support systems out there to help and assist to help them continue their education.”

Many of the students come in with a variety of maturity levels as high school students usually do.

“We’re very selective with the courses we recommend for students,” said Hennell. “We talk about what it takes to be successful in a college class, how do you behave, how you talk to an instructor because those are critical pieces of being successful in a class.”

Design Science’s unusual method of schooling works for most students, but not all.

Students leave usually during freshman year and at the beginning of sophomore year, but not necessarily for academic problems.

“Since we are a small program, we don’t have athletic teams; we don’t have choir; we don’t have band,” Hennell said.  “If they want to do that, some of them decide it is an important part of what they want to do; they go back to their home schools.”

Exum prefers not to use the term dropout because many of the students go back to other high schools after they leave the program.

“We look at it this way, whatever we’ve done to help them learn a little bit more about college will pay off in the long run,” he said.

Even though they may seem young, some of the students from Design High are involved in student government at FCC. One such student is Associated Student Government Communication Officer, Francisco Gomez.

Even though Gomez is only 17 years old, he has decided to become involved in the student body because he sees FCC as his school.

“I think of it as my way of participating in my school. I think of Fresno City College as my school,” said Gomez I’ve been here for my whole high school career, it’s part of the environment, you can say, I grew up in. It’s a place I want to change, it’s a place I want to be involved in.”

The program is still going strong and continues to churn out students to colleges all across California, such as CSU Fresno, California State University Channel Islands and many others.

Looking toward the future, Exum said he would be interested in expanding the program but knows that these choices aren’t his only.

If I could open it up, I’d open it up. I’d get a thousand kids in here and make sure they all had this opportunity.”