ABOVE THE GRADE
BERWICK — Harrison Snyder had no idea how he would succeed with everything.
When his mother, April Harris-Snyder, the center director for Lackawanna College-Hazleton, pushed the idea that Harrison should go for his associate degree through the college's dual enrollment program, Snyder didn't think he could pull it off.
It's fair to wonder how a two-sport athlete, a full-time student and an engineering intern at Acurlite Structural Skylights could pull off college-level courses and not see a dropped performance in any of his day-to-day activities. He had those same thoughts.
"When I got started (pursuing an associate degree his junior year), it was tough to get adjusted to online courses and how they worked," Snyder said. "I didn't think it was going to work. All my friends were going to LCCC to do dual enrollment and I wanted to do that and be with all of them, but my mom talked me into the level-up program."
Taking the chance changed the course of his life in many ways, but the biggest is arguably the career path he set for himself. Snyder originally went into the program for engineering, but he loved one economics course so much that he switched his major to business.
The staff at both Berwick and Lackawanna made life easier for him, allowing him to take courses, such as statistics, that counted toward both his diploma and degree. As for the courses that only went toward just one graduation, Snyder spent most of his weekends trying to complete as much work as he could — especially during football season.
"It was much tougher during football season, but on Friday nights, I'd usually go home from a game and tried to get as much work as I could done," Snyder said. "There was always something to be done and it didn't help to put it off no matter how tired or beat up I was from a game."
His performance on the gridiron didn't suffer either. Instead, he improved drastically. Snyder posted 94 tackles, 21 for loss, and 10 sacks, nearly doubling all his numbers from his junior season.
Those stats caught the attention of Saint Francis, a Division I subdivision school that competes in the Northeast Conference against schools like Duquesne, Long Island and Sacred Heart.
Snyder knows when he takes college classes he'll be ahead of most, if not all, of his peers, given he already has his associate degree. He also knows he'll be on an even playing field when he suits up with the Red Flash football team.
Snyder — who received a preferred walk-on scholarship, presidential scholarship and some local scholarships from football — will be red-shirting as an edge rusher. He's excited to show his talents both on the field and in the classroom and believes the decision will lead to five great years at Saint Francis.
"Having the MBA program was big. But after meeting all the coaches, they're all awesome dudes," Snyder said of his decision to attend Saint Francis. "The culture, facilities and coaches all caught my eye."
As the end drew near for both his degree and diploma, Snyder had one more lasting impact to make before saying goodbye to Berwick High School. Competing in the Class 3A Track and Field Championships, Snyder threw the shotput for a school record 53 feet — something he had been working on achieving before working toward his degree.
"Before I started the online college, I was on track to break the record. I kept getting closer and closer," Snyder said. "I finally got it at states. The feeling was both awesome and scary as I was getting closer, but a great feeling once I finally got it.
Though football is his true love, he is still sad to give up track. Snyder doesn't think he'll have the time to compete in both sports and be a full-time student pursuing a master's degree.
He's still kept his toes in the engineering world with his Co-Op at Acurlite, a manufacturing company his father, Matthew, works for. The company supports Snyder's drive and after putting him to work for a couple of hours in the morning and again in the afternoon based on his schedule, it'll continue to work with him when he returns to town as a full-time college student.
Snyder, who wants to remain in the area and keep working for Acurlite, says he and the company agreed he'll move to sales once he graduates with his master's.
Life is far from figured out for Snyder, but he has taken a path very few — and nobody in Berwick's history — has before. He's gone over plenty of bumps to get to this point but says anybody who wants to follow a similar path, should do so.
"It's a lot of hard work. The first step is asking the guidance counselor about it," Snyder said. "From there, you just go out and do it. It may suck for a while, but it's worth it in the end."
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