UT Grants High School Diplomas to Students in Vietnam

By Bianca Moragne in 40 Acres, Special on May 21, 2012 at 2:29 pm | 3 Comments

As thousands of students and families packed the Forty Acres for last weekend’s commencement ceremonies, UT also celebrated a lesser-known class of Longhorns—in Vietnam.

On Saturday, The University of Texas Online High School celebrated its very first class of UT Online High School grads in Nam My, Vietnam.

“This is a historic event, the first time a group of Vietnamese students have studied the entire American high school program in Vietnam and received high school diplomas from UTHS,” says Gisela Greco-Llamas, director of UT’s K-16 Education Center, which runs the online high school.

The 11 students are joint graduates of UT’s Online High School and the Vietnamese American Private School in Nam My.

Fully accredited by the Texas Education Agency, UT Online High School teaches high school curricula to distance learners. Students range from migrant farmworkers in remote locations to older learners to homeschoolers who want more control over their coursework. In addition to the program in Vietnam, the school also offers courses to learners in Guatemala and Morocco. Partnerships in Shanghai and Indonesia are in the works.

Graduates are required to earn at least 22 approved credits and to pass the exit-level TAKS test. On their first attempt, 100 percent of the Vietnamese students passed the exam.

Earning an American high school diploma abroad offers huge advantages to international students, especially those who want to attend college in the U.S.

“This success is a remarkable achievement for an institution outside the U.S., especially in Vietnam where English is not a language that is spoken in the home,” says Greco-Llamas. Taught entirely in English, the curriculum is the first of its kind in Vietnam.

Top photo courtesy John Walker on Flickr.
Middle photo courtesy of Wayne Wenske of Continuing and Innovative Education.

Tags: CIE, distant learning, high school diploma, high school graduates, K-16 Education Center, Nam My Vietnamese American Private School, TAKS test, Texas Education Agency, university of texas, UTHS