A freshman from Logan County was the only student speaker on a recent program that included several leaders in education and government. 
Chelsea Thomason of Auburn is a Western Kentucky University freshman who graduated from Logan County High School this spring. She spoke at an Oct. 26 news conference about combined efforts by WKU and 33 school districts in the Green River RegionalEducation Cooperative to help high school students be better prepared for postsecondary education.
Other speakers included WKU President Gary Ransdall, Provost Barbara Burch and Coordinator of College Readiness Sharon Hunter, Bowling Green Schools Superintendent Joe Tinius, Franklin-Simpson Schools Superintendent Jim Flynn, GRECC Executive Director Liz Storey, and State Representative Jody Richards.
Hunter said only 62 percent of students entering WKU in fall 2007 were college-ready. She added that according to preliminary data for this year, about 59 percent of students coming from GRREC schools were college-ready in math.
WKU is offering professional development courses on content-area reading to high school teachers. The university is also taking part in a project through Pearson Publishing Inc. that uses the company’s learning software in several GRREC high schools to determine if it helps prepare students for college. 
Western is now providing a literacy class to college students whose test scores indicate they would benefit from supplemental reading assistance.
Simpson County schools are partnering with Bowling Green Technical College to offer BGTC courses for FSHS students to help prepare them for college, Flynn said.
Thomason said she is taking the literacy class at WKU despite graduating from LCHS with honors and earning several college credits. 
“I came into WKU with 12 credit hours, but I’m still struggling with college,” she said, adding that she is taking the steps to be prepared for courses in the future. 
The student said she has learned how to go about studying and learning in different ways and discovered who she is as a learner. 
“In high school, you are told how to do things,” she said. “In college, you are given a task and expected to do it and know how to do it/. What I struggled with was not knowing how to do college-level (work).”