A ‘Running Start’ on College

Editor’s Note: This story is part of The Rural College Project, an ongoing series about efforts to expand access to higher education for rural students in Montana. This series was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.

On the last day of the school year at Lincoln County High School in Eureka, Renee Melton’s classroom is uncharacteristically quiet. As the early June sun streams in through the cracked windows, the sounds of summer vacation waft in from the outside. On a typical day, Melton’s class is bustling with juniors and seniors chatting about weekend plans and sharing snacks between assignments. Today, the seniors are out for the year, and one lone junior sits behind a computer screen.

Despite all the makings of a regular classroom, Melton’s learning space is far from traditional. It is, rather, the hub for a learning program that has reshaped rural Montana’s students’ relationships with higher education.

Melton is Lincoln County High School’s instructor for Running Start, a dual enrollment program through Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC) that allows students to earn college credits while still in high school. The program, which originated in the 1990s, now serves over 1,000 students across the state, offering traditional classes like calculus and sociology alongside hands-on career and technical education opportunities.

Running Start is a flagship program for the college, which over the course of three decades has expanded into rural Montana, where college access can be sparse. FVCC’s Running Start blends the traditional dual enrollment model with community-minded career programs, helping students build strong foundations in the industries that power northwest Montana’s small towns.

Running Start first got off the ground in 1995 as a partnership with Kalispell’s Flathead High School. At its inception, the program allowed Kalispell juniors and seniors to enroll in college classes on FVCC’s campus at half the price.

Five years later, the program had expanded to four local high schools, enrolling around 50 students annually. In 2004, the college offered its first remote Running Start opportunities through an interactive television system, reshaping its relationship with remote communities.

Kathy Hughes, FVCC’s interim vice president of educational services at the time, said the interactive learning program “[opened] up all kinds of doors.”

By 2007, students from a dozen high schools, as well as homeschool students, were eligible to participate in Running Start. Between 2016 and 2019, enrollment in Running Start grew by over 60%. Students were not only taking courses at FVCC, but were enrolling in college-level courses located in their own high schools, taught by their own teachers.

This past school year, the program has reached over 1,200 students at 24 Montana high schools.

“It’s not just the traditional general education that we might think of –– college writing, intro to psychology, American history,” Beth Romain, the director of Running Start at FVCC, said. “There’s a lot of career and technical classes that high school students are accessing through Running Start.”

According to Romain, Running Start extends beyond traditional dual enrollment programs, which often offer standard college courses to students who plan to attend a four-year institution after high school. Running Start students this fall will be able to access courses from agricultural pest management to electric motor controls to field botany. The range of career and technical education courses available to students, educators said, reflects Montana’s communities, where trades education is paving the way towards economic prosperity.

“In my opinion, that’s something that we have not historically done a good job of in public education, guiding kids to the trades,” Joel Graves, Eureka Public Schools superintendent, said.

Graves described Eureka as a close-knit community, one where the legacy of shuttered timber mills looms large and economic inequality strains local families. Pushing his high school students towards college can be difficult – and it’s not always the right choice. Running Start, Graves said, has opened previously unknown doors, creating pathways towards careers in medicine, tourism, construction and local industry.

Trades education is important in Montana, where construction, manufacturing and technical sectors have outpaced other industries’ job growth in recent years. Over the next decade, the state is projected to add 840 jobs in construction and 410 jobs in manufacturing.

In Flathead and Lincoln counties, building trades are a pathway to economic viability, as northwest Montana’s construction boom demands skilled laborers. Between 2018 and 2023, the city of Kalispell approved 1,763 building permits – the vast majority of which were residential – to meet the demands of a ballooning population. Whitefish approved 944 residential permits between 2019 and 2023. The need for skilled electricians, welders, carpenters and plumbers to meet that growth is pressing.

For years, Libby High School teacher John Love said his welding course was a “dumping ground.” Unlike Advanced Placement and honors courses, students couldn’t receive college credit for the industrial arts class. Many avoided it, only fitting it into their schedule if they has an open slot to fill. According to Love, there was just no incentive for enrollment.

When FVCC stepped in and offered to bring the welding course under Running Start, Love said the classroom environment changed entirely. Students flocked to his class to earn their welding technology certificate, which provided the baseline welding skills needed for them to enter the workforce after graduation.

Finally, Love said, “There really was a carrot.”

When Love moved to Libby from Idaho 12 years ago, the town was still reeling from the shuttering of the mills and vermiculite mine that once kept its economy turning, as well as the asbestos poisoning that had afflicted thousands of its residents.

The year Love relocated to Lincoln County, unemployment hovered around 15%. Students watched their parents collect unemployment checks, unable to secure a job as Libby’s economy ground to a near halt.

Being able to offer a college-level welding certificate in the high school, he said, has changed the career calculus for many students.

Connor Benson, a rising senior at Libby High School and Running Start student, said he planned to enter the military or work in an oil field after high school – until he found welding through Love’s class.

“You gotta work a little harder than in most classes,” Benson said of the Running Start course, describing hands-on learning and hours spent in the welding booth ahead of the certification test.

But the goal of earning his welding certificate propelled Benson through the challenging class. It also reshaped the trajectory of his post-graduate plans. Now, he hopes to bolster his welding skills in trade school and travel across the country before settling back in Libby one day.

“After taking the class and getting the certificate, it’s really what I want to do,” he said.

Romain said a major focus of Running Start has been to “knock down as many of those barriers as possible” when it comes to college access.

Educational experts say that a constellation of factors makes it difficult for rural students to enroll in and complete college at the same rate as suburban and urban students. According to Crystine Miller, director of student affairs and student engagement for the Montana University System, these barriers include high costs, distance from home, academic preparedness and a sense of isolation on campus. 

“We know that first-generation college students, students who are low-income, American Indian students, students who higher ed is not necessarily built around, don’t necessarily always feel like they belong,” she said. “That sense of belonging and sense of purpose in higher education spaces can become a barrier.” 

With Running Start, FVCC hopes to offer a smooth transition to the college environment at a low cost, acclimating students to college-level courses and allowing them to see a fuller picture of what higher education can mean. 

Running Start students can take their first six college credits for free. Any more than six can be taken at half price. Scholarships are available to lower the price of the remaining credits, as well.

“If you’re a kid from a poor family and you can leave high school with six college credits done,” Graves said, “That’s a huge jump.”

FVCC’s expansion of Running Start into rural communities has been deliberate and dedicated, forged over the course of three decades through on-the-ground relationship building. Romain regularly travels to Running Start campuses, which have cropped up in small communities from Arlee to Superior to Custer County.

“It’s important for myself and my team to make trips to these schools so we’re able to build that relationship and show students that college is attainable,” she said.

Lisa Blank, executive director of workforce development at FVCC, described Running Start as one example of the college working with rural communities to develop programs that are based in specific academic and economic needs. Rather than coming to school districts with proposals, FVCC allows local leaders to guide the development of programs that are “delivered in workforce.”

Melton, Lincoln County High School’s Running Start teacher, said the program has been a success, helping students test the waters of college while allowing them to branch out beyond the walls of the small Eureka school.

 “I’d say it’s totally beneficial all the way around,” Melton said.

[email protected]