First AZ students to get bachelor's degrees from community colleges graduate this week
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For the first time in state history, students are graduating from Arizona’s community colleges with bachelor's degrees.
In 2021, then Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill into law allowing community colleges to offer limited four-year college degrees. Last spring, students began registering for bachelor’s level courses through Maricopa Community Colleges with classes starting that fall.
Six Maricopa Community College students will walk in upcoming commencement ceremonies. Two of those are at Rio Salado College in Tempe.
Twenty-four-year-old Rheanan Heller is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in public safety administration.
“I wasn’t considering going back to school at all," Heller said. "I mean I knew that financially, it was going to be such a huge barrier for me to be able to live and for my family to live, and so I was pretty much just wait until a miracle fell from the heavens and that miracle and that miracle was Rio getting its public safety administration program.”
Heller previously completed two associate degrees. She took on a full schedule that included accelerated classes to get her bachelor's done in one year.
She plans to take the LSAT in June 2024, with a goal of applying to ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law for admission in fall 2025.
Rio's president, Kate Smith, said there are 270 students enrolled in bachelor's degree programs at Rio and 2,800 across the community college system.
"Sixty percent of those students are first generation college students, meaning they’re the first ones in their family to get a degree," Smith said. "It's life-changing. It's community changing."
According to the district website, a bachelor’s degree from Maricopa saves students $7,000 to $10,000 a year, compared to the average annual tuition costs at a university.
EDITOR'S NOTE: KJZZ is licensed to the Maricopa County Community College District.
