In a ceremony filled with tradition, loved ones gathered on the University of Texas at Dallas’s campus to celebrate a group of students bucking the trend, trading in a conventional school experience for a virtual one.
Today, more than 500 students from across the state received diplomas from Texas Online Preparatory School, an alternative education Samuel Hooper said just made sense.
“It was an interesting concept. It was comforting for me to stay home. It was inviting,” said Hooper.
It was also safe.
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Hooper is one of the 643,000 students the National Education Policy Center reports turned to virtual schools across the nation during the pandemic, doubling the number enrolled the year before.
And though the non-profit says tens of thousands returned to brick and mortar the following year, virtual enrollment remains elevated.
Perhaps because of a shift in perspective, Meykhal Vasquez Mendiola said she’s witnessed seven years after she first enrolled.
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“I think before COVID, people might have thought it was a little weird, kids just being at home. But now since the pandemic, it opens way more doors,” said Mendiola.
Leading them to the start of a new chapter they hope will be bright.
