Early College Scholar of the Month: Marcus Mack

Marcus Mack is busy. Between playing on the football team, leading the Robotics Team, serving with the HFCA Technology Ambassadors, and having a part-time job, you’d think Marcus would be ready for some downtime. But this high school junior isn’t done: he’s also enrolled in two — yes two — college courses at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee this semester. 

Marcus successfully completed a speech course at Milwaukee Area Technical College as a sophomore. This year, he continues to maintain an impressive high school GPA while taking Introduction to Economics and Politics of the World’s Nations.

“Because of his independent work ethic and motivation to learn, Marcus is earning an A in both college classes.” says dual enrollment coordinator Courtney Charters.

“Marcus is successful because he regularly checks for updates from his professors, seeks feedback from HFCA staff before submitting work, and thinks deeply about what he is learning,” 

“The number one thing I’ve learned from college classes is to make sure that all your stuff is caught up,” Marcus explains.

He completes his coursework for Politics of the World’s Nations online during the day at HFCA. Twice a week, Marcus travels by bus to UW-Milwaukee’s campus for his economics class, where he attends a lecture with dozens of other college students.  

He believes taking these college courses are going to help him in the future, “I can get a feel for how college professors grade things and how they like their work to be prepared.”

He is also grateful for the support he receives from HFCA, “I would give it a solid 10 out of 10. I’m always able to get help. One area I struggle with is grammar. I can ask Ms. Charters or any other teacher to help me out and they’ll gladly look at my essays.” 

“It’s a joy to discuss his classes with Marcus,” says Charters. “Because he can tell you so much about what he’s learned so far.” 

This year, Marcus was able to attend one of his classes on the UWM campus, “It feels different being in the lecture hall. I honestly really like that compared to being in a classroom.”

“I feel like more students should be taking these classes. If you want to do it, ask for it,” Marcus says. “The school will do everything to try to get you to at least try one class.”

Next semester, Marcus plans to take Pre-Calculus at UW-Milwaukee, along with an additional course.