Navajo student in Apache County earns degree before high school graduation

Maudicel Chavez finished college before she finished high school, and that single week marked a rare academic double for a Navajo student with ties to Window Rock and Apache County. Chavez, the great-granddaughter of Big Mountain matriarch Katherine Smith, earned an associate degree in criminal justice from Odessa College and then was set to graduate as salutatorian of Odessa Career & Technical Early College High School on May 15.

The sequence matters because it shows a path that can shorten the road from high school to a degree for Diné students who often balance family obligations, travel and the cost of higher education. Chavez’s achievement also carries intergenerational weight: Katherine Smith was a Diné woman associated with Big Mountain, Arizona, and Navajo Times has previously described her as a key figure in the relocation resistance tied to Black Mesa and the Hopi Partitioned Land. In Chavez, that history now meets a modern college-and-career pipeline.

That pipeline is built around early college and dual-credit programs. The Texas Education Agency says Early College High Schools are open-enrollment schools for students least likely to attend college or looking to finish high school faster, and they can lead to up to 60 college credit hours or an associate degree. Odessa College says dual-credit students can earn credit toward both high school graduation and a college degree, while its Early College High School model allows students to leave with a diploma and either an associate degree or at least 60 credit hours toward a bachelor’s degree.

Chavez attended Odessa Career & Technical Early College High School, known as OCTECHS, which sits on the Odessa College campus and serves about 400 students in grades 9 through 12. The school says students can complete high school and an associate degree at the same time at no cost to families, with eight career pathways available. Texas education officials said OCTECHS was one of four new career-and-technical early college high school campuses launched in 2015.

Chavez’s degree was in criminal justice, a field Odessa College describes as a two-year foundation in criminal law and procedure, policing strategies and ethics, corrections systems, juvenile justice, criminal investigation techniques and leadership in public safety. The college says graduates can pursue work as police officers, deputy sheriffs, correctional officers, probation officers, dispatchers, security managers or in federal law enforcement support roles.

For Apache County and Navajo Nation families weighing what comes after high school, Chavez’s path offers a practical model: early academic planning, school partnerships that put college classes within reach, and family support strong enough to carry a student through two graduations in one week.