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This fall, Ally Rosha will become the first in her family to go to college. It’s a lifelong dream that her high school, just ranked as the Bay Area’s best, has helped her achieve.
“I want to better myself and better my family, and my school has showed me how to get there,” says Rosha, a senior at Gilroy’s Dr. T.J. Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, which vaulted into a new ranking as the third best high school in California in U.S. News & World Report’s annual list. “Getting to take college classes while still in high school showed me what it takes to make it. It showed me how to get ahead.”
Many of the other Bay Area high schools on this year’s list are well-known top performers, such as Fremont’s Mission San Jose, Cupertino’s Monta Vista and Orinda’s Miramonte. But GECA, which graduated its first class of seniors just eight years ago, is a small school with just 298 students. Though more than a third of its students are economically disadvantaged, 74 percent of the class of 2019 is expected to graduate with enough college credits for an associate’s degree.
Tucked away on the tree-lined Gavilan College campus at the southern edge of Santa Clara County, GECA is framed by orchards and farms where many students’ parents work. Started in 2007 with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in cooperation with Gilroy Unified School District, it is not a charter school but an “early college high school,” where students can take community college classes. Named after the late Dr. T.J. Owens, a civil rights champion and president of the Gilroy School Board, the school’s mission is to show its students that college can be a reality for them.
“Students come here because they want to work hard,” says biology teacher Kamala Wood. “Sonia Flores (the principal) is amazing at getting students and staff to be the best that they can be. We have high expectations, and kids live up to them.”
Students have to apply to get into GECA, a college admission-like process that involves writing an essay, being interviewed and turning in letters of recommendation. The school has become more selective as it has gotten more popular. GECA had 182 applicants this school year and could only accept 90.
One of the reasons the school earned a rating of 99.76 percent out of 100 percent in the U.S. News report is its perfect AP participation rate. That means a student can graduate from the high school with an AA degree and 60 transferable college units. Like Rosha, about 74 percent of the class of 2019 is expected to attain an AA degree at the same time as they earn their high school diploma.
“Our school seeks to serve students who are traditionally underrepresented in a four-year university,” says Flores. “We are here to serve the students who may not speak English at home, the students who will be the first in their family to graduate from high school.”
Rosha works 20 to 25 hours a week at Starbucks and has pulled down the grades to get into Sonoma State University. Because she had access to AP classes as well as community college classes, she has enough credits to be a college junior.
“I am really excited to go to college. My parents are so proud of me,” says Rosha, who plans to study psychiatry because she wants to help people. “College is so expensive, but getting out in two years makes a big difference.”
GECA doesn’t try to do everything. There are no sports teams, and there is no chorus. If you love theater and want to perform in shows, you have to go elsewhere, like Lauren DeRosa does, but she doesn’t mind.
“I think that helps you with time management. You have to learn how to choose what is most important to you,” says the 16-year-old who lives in Gilroy. “That’s something that helps prepare you for college.”
There are only 11 full-time teachers at GECA and a total staff of 15, but the school placed 42nd in the nation, out of the 17,245 ranked schools. Teachers say limited staffing may be an advantage.
“Having a small staff means we are all on the same page,” says Wood. “It’s like a family. If a student is struggling, we can put our heads together to get them the support they need.”
A sense of ownership in their school may be one reason the teenagers on this campus, often a hard-to-impress demographic, are thrilled at the news.
“This is definitely a big deal for us,” says DeRosa, a junior. “We have all worked really hard, and it feels great to be ranked #3 at a school that hasn’t been around that long. We’ve come a long way.”
