An increasing number of head scarves have been floating around OCCC’s campus lately, and concurrent enrollment is the reason why.

Mercy School Institute, an accredited private Islamic pre-K through 12th grade school in Edmond (14001 North Harvey Avenue), recently incorporated concurrent enrollment into their junior and senior high school curriculum.

Nida Safdar, Maryam Mian and Sidra Mesiya are a few of the newly concurrent students from MSI this summer semester.

“We were all scheduled to take the ACT and, based on our score, asked if we were interested in concurrent enrollment,” Safdar said.

“We are still required to take classes at MSI during both our junior and senior year,” Mian said.

“Like, physics and Islamic theology, which includes a mixture or Arabic, Quran, and Islamic studies.”

“During the weekdays, we’re at OCCC in the morning and at MSI in the afternoon,” Mesiya said. “We even have a carpooling system.”

A one semester, three credit course at OCCC is equivalent to a full-year, one-credit course at MSI.

“We were kind of nervous at first,” Mesiya said. “But, after the first day and noticing the similarly small class sizes, we were OK.”

“Most of us are actually probably going to go on to OU, UCO or another four-year university later on,” Mian said. “So we plan on branching out even further.”

“OCCC is … a really nice transition from MSI,” Mesiya said.

Freshly juniors, the girls agree that it’s been a learning experience in more ways than just strictly educational.

“We’ve had plenty of questions and conversations arise about Islam,” Safdar said.

“It’s a good opportunity to teach people more about us Muslims,” Mesiya said.

“We’ve actually gotten quite a few compliments, as well.” she said.

“And, even if we don’t open our mouths to speak, the way we dress and act make us a lot like walking pamphlets,” Mian said.

“Everyone’s just been super nice,” Safdar said. “They’ve made it easy to adjust.”

“I think we make at least one new friend a day,” Mian said.

“I also think that almost half of the vending machine revenue comes only from us.”

To contact Nadia J. Enchassi, email communitywriter@occc.edu.