Liana Hamm
“I believe that blended and online learning programs are revolutionizing the educational system by personalizing classes in a way that bridges gaps between instruction and learning style to empower students to reach their full potential.”
– Liana Hamm
In many cases the traditional educational system fails to meet the individual needs of the student. During my one semester at Jacksonville High School in ninth grade, I experienced this problem in the form of a serious gap between teaching methods and my own learning style. Teachers spent most of their time on concepts that I already felt comfortable with, but, paradoxically, I could not grasp what exactly I was supposed to be learning, as no textbooks were used, just loosely guided notes. This lack of structure frustrated me, hindered my study efforts, and, in fact, created another gap, one between my learning progress and my learning potential. Thus, for the rest of my high school career I attended online school at K12 (iCademy), which closed this learning gap by allowing me to structure my own classes. Due to the textual and video format of virtual lessons, I moved faster through the easier material and focused my efforts on the more difficult points. Thus, I used my time more efficiently and felt confident that my comprehension was thorough.
“With these highly rigorous courses, I discovered a passion for economics, which I am now extremely prepared to pursue when I begin college at Rice University next fall.”
By maximizing students' depth of learning this way, online schooling enables students to pursue classes better suited to their goals. Since middle school I have desired to explore my interests in a variety of subjects through both my courses and a future college education. I saw Advanced Placement classes as the best way to achieve these goals, but JHS only offered a handful of these classes at the time I attended. In contrast, iCademy offered an impressive total of sixteen AP classes, of which I took as many as was feasible.