College Now is a collaborative program between the New York City Department of Education and The City University of New York. It provides high school students a chance to take college-level or skill-building courses in a learning-centered environment. Faculty and students build a rapport as partners in learning and share intellectual connections made by motivation, self-discipline, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Student participants begin to develop thinking and learning skills, which help them become independent and self-sufficient college learners, able to contribute responsibly to an increasingly global community.