CHESTERFIELD, N.H. — Chole McKeon, 17, of Chesterfield, has always had trouble with school work. Words and numbers would end up in the wrong place. She would write one word but mean to write another.

McKeon suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder as well as other spatial and learning disabilities, which made school extremely difficult, she said.

“It was very stressful,” McKeon said. “I would dread being in school the whole day and at the end. I would feel like I failed.”

This continued until her junior year of high school where she and her parents decided to take a new approach, online classes through the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, New Hampshire’s first statewide online high school.

In June, McKeon and 11 other students were the first-ever graduating class of the program.

High school students who reside in New Hampshire are eligible to apply and once accepted may enroll for part-time or full-time studies, tuition free.

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NASHUA – Taylor Wilmot received her high school diploma in the mail, never having met any of her teachers or classmates.

Wilmot, 18, was one of the first graduates of the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, an online public charter school. She graduated in June, along with 11 other students, making up the school’s first graduating class. The school is based in Exeter, but Wilmot never set foot in town, taking all of her courses from her Nashua home. She is spending her summer taking a writing class at Nashua Community College, where she will enroll full time in the fall. The class she is taking now isn’t online, but in a building with a teacher at the front of the classroom.

Going back to the old-school way of learning has been an adjustment.

“I love being around people. It’s nice and refreshing to go to a school,” Wilmot said. “But at the same time, I’m sitting there for four hours. I didn’t miss sitting in those hard chairs with a desk.”

For the rest of the article, go to Online high school grad continues education in college setting