Bard High School Early College Opens Its Bronx Campus

The Bronx, NY — On Wednesday, August 30, community leaders, government officials, school administrators, teachers, and students gathered in the Bronx for the ribbon-cutting of the newest Bard High School Early College (BHSEC). A branch campus of Bard College, the new high school early college is a collaboration between the City of New York Department of Education, Montefiore/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Bard College to create a science-focused public high school where students can earn up to an associate’s degree from Bard, tuition free, alongside their New York State Regents diploma.

During an exuberant, standing-room-only ceremony, speakers affirmed their commitment to supporting and providing world-class college education to public school students in the Bronx. Dr. Siska Brutsaert, the founding principal of the new BHSEC and former dean at BHSEC Manhattan, kicked off the event and welcomed other distinguished speakers, including Bronx High School Superintendent Renee Peart, Bard College President Leon Botstein, NYCDOE First Deputy Chancellor Daniel Weisberg, Deputy Bronx Borough President Janet Peguero, State Senator Luis Sepúlveda, State Senator John Liu, State Assembly Member Michael Benedetto, City Councilmember Amanda Farías, Former Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter, and Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at Albert Einstein College of Medicine Dr. Lynne Holden.

The new BHSEC in the Bronx builds on more than 20 years of successful partnership between Bard College and the City of New York. At the request of city leaders, in September 2001 Bard launched its high school early college network by opening BHSEC Manhattan as a new public high school on the Lower East Side. Since then, the success of the BHSEC Manhattan students, combined with local community demand for outstanding public education options, has led Bard to open additional early college campuses in Queens, Newark, Cleveland, New Orleans, the Hudson Valley, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. The College has awarded over 4,000 AA degrees to BHSEC students across the Bard Early College network, where over 3,000 students are currently enrolled. More than 95 percent of BHSEC students, the majority of whom are first-generation college students and Pell eligible, graduate from high school with at least one year of tuition-free college credit from Bard.

BHSEC Bronx is the first campus in the Bard Early College network to host a partnership with Einstein Montefiore Medical Center. The school’s curriculum, developed in collaboration with medical professionals from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, will provide unique learning opportunities in public health and medical sciences to its students. Classes at the new school, which has an initial enrollment of 125 students with plans to expand over the next four years to 500 students, will begin on Thursday, September 7.

This event was last updated on 08-31-2023

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