By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

For Wyoming resident Danielle Burzynski there was no pressing need for her to finish high school and get a diploma.

“I left school and got a job and I had been at my job for 22 years,” Burzynski said. “So I do not have the need to finish or go back.”

It was something she thought about, but she became a single mother and between raising a family and working, there never seemed to be the time.

Burzynski is not alone, according to Kent District Library (KDL) Librarian and Outreach Specialist Sara Magnuson. About 35,000 Kent County residents have not completed high school with most of them coming from underserved communities. It part of the reason that last year the KDL rolled out a new offering, the Career Online High School, designed for students to earn an accredited high school diploma as well as a workforce readiness certificate. 

“We were looking at ways to help build community financial stability,” Magnuson said. “One of the first steps is you can not achieve career advancement in work without a diploma.”

Wanting to give her daughter inspiration to finish her high school studies, Burzynski decided in 2019 to go back and get her diploma. She quickly discovered there were many options making her feel that is was “OK to go back and finish.” With the knowledge that she still could get that diploma, Burzynski began exploring those options, settling on the Career High Online School.

“It was wonderful,” Burzynski said. “I could do it online at my own pace and in my free time. It was about two weeks per semester and I was doing about a week per semester.”

Started in 2007, the Career Online High School program, which is part of the nation’s first private, accredited online school district Smart Horizons Career Online Education, is 100 percent online. Students access course materials from anywhere at anytime. Also, as an accredited high school program, students can transfer previously earned high school credits.

 

The key aspect that KDL liked about the Career Online High School program was the workforce readiness certificate, Magnuson said.

“It gives the students several different options,” she said. “They could enter a home health care study (that would give them the background to successful enter the certified nurse assistant or CNA program0 or go into the office management career field. It gives them the background knowledge and helps potential employers who are considering hiring them that they have the knowledge in the field they are pursing.”

Each student accepted into the program is assigned an academic coach who works with the Career Online High School provider, Magnuson said.

 

While Burzynski already had a career, the program worked well for her needs of flexibility to complete the remaining 12 credits she needed to graduate, which she did in December 2019.

“I can’t even described the feeling when I finished, how proud I was of myself,” she said. “Now it is one less thing to be done.”

The Career Online High School program is around $99 a month; however, KDL is offering scholarships for up to 25 Kent County residents. To be considered, a candidate must be a resident of Kent County, have a KDL library card and fill out an online assessment on the KDL website. Prospective students will be contacted by their local KDL branch library and given a link to a two-week prerequisite course. Those who pass the prerequisite course with a score of 70 percent or above will then be interviewed in person by their libraries to determine if they will receive a scholarship.

Magnuson said scholarships are not guaranteed as the program has to be the right fit for the student. If it is not, Magnuson said KDL does try to work with the student to find the best option for them. KDL works with several organizations that offer GED and high school completion programs such as the Kent ISD which among its offerings has Project NorthStar. Project NorthStar works with both in-school and out-of-school students looking to become self-sufficient by getting a diploma or GED and gaining job skills. Some of the other organizations that KDL works with are Sparta Adult Education, Rockford Adult Education, Hispanic Center of Western Michigan, Jubilee Jobs and the Literacy Center of West Michigan.

“It has gone extremely well,” Magnuson said of the Career Online High School program, adding that there are about 17 students who have received scholarships and three that have graduated with several others almost done. Because of its success, she said KDL will be offering the program again this year and has 25 scholarships available.

For more about the Career Online High School program, visit the KDL.org website, click on Services and then Adult Services or click here.