A Niles New Tech graduate’s story served to highlight the impact Lake Michigan College is having on the lives of local high school students.

Jordan Rohl, who graduated from New Tech this spring, spoke about her college experience at Monday’s meeting of the LMC Board of Trustees at the Bertrand Crossing campus.

Despite just graduating from high school, Rohl said she is only one year away from finishing the pre-nursing program at LMC — something that would not have been possible if she had not started taking college courses at a young age.

“I started when I was 16,” she said.

Rohl originally pursued a performing arts degree, but switched to nursing when she realized that’s what she really wanted to do.

She said she plans to major in pediatric neonatal nursing at LMC.

She credits taking classes at LMC with helping her mature and saving her money as she figured out the path she wanted to take.

Barbara Craig, dean of LMC’s Bertrand Crossing Campus, said Rohl is just one of 61 Niles New Tech students from the Class of 2015 who earned credits at LMC while attending high school.

All those students combined, Craig said, earned 1,264 transferable college credits, which is equivalent to $450,000 worth of credits at a typical four-year college or university.

High school students realize these savings because the public school they are attending — in Rohl’s case Niles Community Schools — pays for the student’s college courses.