How one student took charge of her own education
Online schooling has given one ninth grader the opportunity to learn what she really needs—and wants—to know.
By WP BrandStudio
Bergen Johnson, 14, and her mother, Cathy, like to tell the story of a horse they used to keep near their farm house in rural Manistee, Michigan. When they first got it, they built a pen to keep the horse from wandering off and getting lost on their dozens of acres of land. When they let the horse out, though, it knew exactly how far to roam and how to return. It never really needed the fence.
The horse might be a lot like Bergen. A mature, career-driven, achievement-oriented ninth-grader with the focus of a woman twice her age, she knows where she wants to go and how she plans to get there. And instead of trying to contain Bergen’s ambition, the adults around her are giving her the space she needs to set her own boundaries and explore.
This school year, Bergen enrolled in Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy (MGLVA), a tuition-free online public school powered by K12 Inc. After years of being homeschooled by Cathy, Bergen sought an accredited institution that would help her work toward the future she envisions.
“I wanted a better structure for my high school years so I’d be more prepared for college,” she said.
Cathy was on board. She was having difficulty keeping up with her ambitious daughter’s academic appetite and, after 25 years of homeschooling Bergen and her four older siblings, she felt ready to step back from her role as teacher. Online schooling, in which Cathy would serve as Bergen’s “learning coach,” offering support while Bergen was taught by professional teachers in the home environment to which she was accustomed, seemed like a perfect solution.
A teen with a plan
Bergen has a clear career plan: After high school, she plans to pursue a degree in the business field, with an emphasis on sales and marketing, then become a real-estate entrepreneur. It’s not exactly the standard dream for a 14-year-old, but Bergen isn’t receiving a standard education.
In addition to taking a full roster of core classes at MGLVA, Bergen is enrolled in the Destinations Career Program, MGLVA’s career readiness education curriculum that helps her build skills in fields such as business management, finance and marketing. Lately, she’s been working on a project about entrepreneurship in multi-family real estate, because that’s what she’s most interested in.
“[It gives us] an in-depth understanding about what a career will entail,” she said of the Destinations program. Most high schoolers don’t get that experience, Bergen noted, “and they should.”
Shaun McAlmont, K12’s president of career readiness education, agrees. “The workplace is changing dramatically,” and skills in communication, critical thinking and technology are in ever-higher demand, he said. High schools—including online ones—must help students prepare for the future.
K12 powers more than 70 public schools across the U.S., and an increasing number of those include a Destinations Career Academy like MGLVA’s. In these programs, students are offered diverse pathways of study such as the business fields Bergen is exploring, as well as health and human services, manufacturing, agriculture and IT.
In addition to teaching skills that are crucial for today’s job market, K12’s high school curriculum offers a platform for collaborative group projects, and Destinations Career Academies will soon offer students opportunities for exposure to industry professionals that they may not get elsewhere, McAlmont said. These elements could prove especially advantageous for students who, like Bergen, live in rural communities and “might not have access to industry experts and resources”, he added.
Cathy agrees. “We could’ve never done this through homeschooling,” she said.
Academic rigor with a DIY extracurricular twist
Bergen has never really felt the need to go to a brick-and-mortar public school. She attended a small private Christian school for first and second grades, and was then homeschooled until she enrolled at MGLVA last fall. Being taught at home, she said, allowed her to learn at her own rapid pace and not have to wait for others to catch up.
In her online schooling, she has been able to sustain that academic rigor and individualization, and she especially likes how easy it is to focus in an online classroom.
“At a [brick-and-mortar] school, kids may come in late, disturb the class and interrupt your learning,” she said. “That doesn’t happen in an online setting.”
Bergen also enjoys the close connection she has forged with her teachers. “They’re constantly saying, ‘Just email me, shoot me a text. We’re here to help you.’ They really care about how you’re doing,” she said.
Courses at MGLVA are taught by state-certified teachers, who follow the same standards that all Michigan school teachers do. And since many of her teachers live relatively close by, Bergen is able to connect with some of them in person at a café, the library or school events. She’s also made friends with other online students at MGLVA; she met a 10th-grader named Stella through the Destinations Career program, and the two “constantly text or call each other” about schoolwork, Bergen said.
The one aspect of a brick-and-mortar school Bergen yearned for, after years of homeschooling, was the opportunity to engage with school clubs and sports. She has been able to get that at MGLVA, where she participates in a full roster of extracurricular activities—in some cases helping to create them. Bergen helped found the school’s chapter of DECA, an international organization that helps prepare students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management, and she has enjoyed great success at the organization’s competitions, triumphing at the district level and advancing to the state finals earlier this year. She is also looking to start a debate club at MGLVA, working with other students to create a space to discuss tough subjects.
If MGLVA doesn’t have what Bergen wants, Cathy said, “She goes and makes it herself.”
Self-starting students like Bergen can really thrive in a virtual learning environment because it gives them the time and space “to expand and grow in their areas of passion,” said Jenny Kendall, K12’s senior director of special programs.
“They’re the students who are leading our student councils or school robotics clubs, who approach their teachers and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to create a yearbook committee,’ who start the STEM club or a student activist group at their school,” she said. “Those are the students who are using the framework of the curriculum and saying, ‘Hey, how can we go beyond this? What else can my school offer to support me?’ In many ways, because of their passion and interests, these incredibly valuable students are driving the growth of the school.”
Taking charge of her future
Bergen’s passion shows no sign of letting up and neither does her commitment to pursue her interests and goals. Thanks to MGLVA and the freedom and support it has given her to learn and explore, Bergen’s vision is already clear—and her future couldn’t look more promising.
She was recently invited to a national youth leadership program for business innovation at Yale University. The six-day intensive curriculum offers students the chance to participate in a startup simulation; they take an idea from concept to launch, which allows them to develop entrepreneurial skills, learn from Yale faculty and business leaders and interact with other students along the way.
And next year, she’ll begin dual enrollment at West Shore Community College, taking college-level courses while completing her high school education, and building critical skills in the field of business.
“She’s just blossoming,” Cathy said of Bergen’s experience with online schooling. “All this opportunity is what she has been so thirsty for. We just follow along and encourage.”
