Four longtime friends at the Hammond Area Career Center University graduated high school this year while also earning an associate’s degree.

In college, they all plan to go into nursing or radiology — after spending their latter half studying in the school’s health track. All said the high school program was a bridge for them to college.

The four-year high school program, at 5727 Sohl Ave., allows selected Hammond students the option to earn an associate’s degree through Vincennes University. It shares a building with the Hammond Area Career Center.

This year, 36 of 72 seniors graduated with associates degrees, principal JoEllen Raby said. An additional 14 graduated with 30 college credits — about equal to one year of college.

The program allows students to get a taste of what they could study in college, potentially saving thousands of dollars, said health science instructor Heather Lint.

It also gives them some background for the clinicals they will face in college, she said.

All four interviewed have about 3.5 years left for college.

“Not everybody is going to go to college, so these programs are going to help kids have something that can already stand on,” said student Charlesiana Roberts, 17.

Next fall, Roberts will attend Valparaiso University and hopes to major in nursing with a minor in psychology. She wants to become a sexual assault examination nurse.

“I’m not interested in emergency (room nursing) or babies,” she said. “(With a shortage) I can stay here and start it up.”

This month, she graduated with a 4.27 GPA. Her mother wanted to become a nurse, but had to raise her children.

“She’s really proud,” Roberts said of her path.

Student Sarah Hacker’s parents wanted to send her to the Hammond Area Career Center for technical training or another high school instead of Morton or Gavit.

Although the Hammond Area Career Center University gave her a chance to earn an early associate’s degree, it also carried some risks.

“I thought I was going to lose a lot of my friends,” said Hacker, 18, graduating with a 3.7 GPA.

In fact, she, Roberts and Parkhurst grew up together in the city’s Hessville section. All went to Scott Middle School and played softball together.

With several family members in health careers, Sarah Hacker gravitated toward nursing. By August, Hacker plans to attend Valparaiso University to become an Emergency Room nurse.

“I like working in a fast pace,” Hacker said. “I like feeling the rush, stuff like that.”

Kristen Parkhurst’s parents encouraged her to apply to the Hammond Area Career Center University. It led the way for her to study radiology at Indiana University Northwest next fall.

“That’s a big opportunity, you should do it,” she said, of their thoughts. “With my parents only having a high school education, they wanted me to go onto a better path than they had.”

Years ago, when her grandmother got sick, she was inspired by the x-ray or ultrasound techs she saw in the hospital.

“That’s where I found my field of what I want to do,” Parkhurst, 18, said.

When he goes to Purdue University in Lafayette, classmate Brien Nash, 18, wants to become a nurse practitioner. He plans to major in nursing with minors in biochemistry, Spanish and Political Science.

The field was an intellectual challenge, he said.

“I couldn’t see myself studying anything else,” Nash said. “I kinda take that as a marker of something that I should be doing.”

Like Roberts, Hacker and Parkhurst, Nash is basically a first generation college student — coming the farthest in his family with a plan to finish a bachelor’s degree.

The experience in Hammond helped him “make some kind of upward mobility in my family.”

“For years, I put in tons and tons of study time,” he said of high school. “It just feels good to see such a valuable conclusion with a diploma.”