Buncombe County schools celebrate early college, career grads with diplomas, degrees

Buncombe County students are walking out of high school with more than diplomas. Through Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College partnerships, the Class of 2026 finished with associate degrees in hand, giving families a no-cost jump on college credits and students a faster route into transfer programs or local jobs.

The milestone was recognized as A-B Tech prepared for its 2026 commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at 2 p.m. at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in downtown Asheville. Friends and family were welcome, and the college offered a livestream for those unable to make it downtown. Graduates were required to pre-register.

At Buncombe County Early College, students attend classes on A-B Tech’s Asheville campus and can follow either a five-year pathway or an accelerated four-year track. Both end the same way: a high school diploma and an associate degree at no extra cost through dual enrollment. Buncombe County Center for Career Innovation, also based on the A-B Tech campus, serves grades 9 through 12 with an optional 13th grade and is built to send students out with job-ready skills and, ideally, a job offer.

Superintendent Dr. Rob Jackson congratulated the graduates, including John Gossett, Nation Hahn, Anna Austin, Ana Sanchez-Grande and Naidelyn Aguilar-Martin. Jackson knows the pipeline personally. A Buncombe County native who attended school in Swannanoa, he studied at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and Western Carolina University before returning to Buncombe County Schools in November 2022 after a career that included teaching, principalships and superintendent roles elsewhere in North Carolina.

The early college model has become an established part of the county’s education landscape. In 2024, A-B Tech said 60 high school students earned associate degrees before graduating from high school, including 33 from Buncombe County Early College. In 2025, that number rose to 150 high school students earning associate degrees through NC Career & College Promise. The college has said many of those graduates were first-generation students, and that community colleges would be central to Western North Carolina’s recovery after Hurricane Helene.

Buncombe County Schools has also kept parents involved in the program’s future, with the BCEC and BCCI advisory council recruiting parents for the 2025-26 school year. For students and families, the payoff is immediate: less time spent paying for college later, and more young adults entering Buncombe County already trained for the region’s classrooms, clinics, labs and job sites.