We had a bright future planned out when we started high school, and we were well on our way to realizing it. We were identical sisters who excelled academically at our high school in Las Vegas and played varsity basketball. After suffering our own injuries on the court, we felt that we had a purpose and made plans to pursue professions in sports medicine.At home, we were lucky to have a lot of support. On the court and in the classroom, we had each other to encourage and compete against. Our mother supported us at every game and encouraged us to keep going through difficult academics by approaching challenges from various angles. We have the motivation, resources, and assistance to achieve our goals in life.
We immediately required more compassion and adaptability after tragedy hit. At an alternative hybrid school, we discovered that.
Throughout our entire lives, our mother had Type 1 diabetes, but it worsened during our junior year of high school. She required 24/7 assistance, including our support. For the first two years, we made an effort to make it work, but it was simply too much. Also, our thoughts were elsewhere. We had no interest in dancing or mingling. Our mother was on our minds constantly. We had more pressing issues than what to wear to school. After researching online learning options, we decided on Clark County Acceleration Academies (CCAA), a hybrid alternative school offered by our school district.
We had the freedom to go at our own speed and were able to balance attending school with caring for our mother. We had the freedom to choose how to balance school and life. When we had to leave school early due to our mother’s sickness, our CCAA teachers were kind and provided the assistance we needed to get through the difficult moments when we had to put school on hold.
We needed to show maturity. We went to school to complete our work, not to play and socialize. After all, we were in charge of our own success, and we had lots of personal support in addition to a framework that let us handle that duty anyway we saw fit. Every week, Wendy Thompson, the former district director at CCAA, came to see how we were doing. She would assist us or locate someone who could if there was something we couldn’t do. Her unwavering support and concern for our academic performance and personal welfare alone filled a gap and kept us from feeling so lost. She organized a strategy for us to begin a job and obtain the necessary training, and she assisted us in completing college applications.
After we graduated, Miss Wendy assisted us in pursuing our ambitions to attend college. We didn’t know how to go with the following phase after our mother passed away; the thought of working, managing a household, and attending college all at once was simply too much. For a week, Miss Wendy called us every day to ask what was wrong. What steps can we take to facilitate this? She made it clear to us that we could still follow our aspirations to work in medicine.
We are both medical assistants today. After completing a nine-month training program at Northwest Career College, we obtained our phlebotomy certificates and medical assistant licenses. We are currently enrolled in a different hybrid program at Grand Canyon University to pursue bachelor’s degrees in nursing. After completing all required coursework online, students finish their clinical rotations at the school’s hospital in Henderson, Nevada.
There are alternatives to regular high school, and we wish more high school students were aware of them. One excellent alternative is to attend a hybrid school, similar to what we did in high school and college. While some young people require the social engagement that an in-person setting provides, many of us have difficulties or simply desire something different.
Overcoming obstacles requires a great deal of strength and determination, and we were lucky to have many adults who supported us along the journey in addition to each other to rely on. We needed encouraging grownups who trusted us enough to follow our own educational route on our own terms, as well as each other to help us go forward.
An alternate route through education to a career we’ve wanted for years has really benefited us. In order for other kids to fulfill their aspirations regardless of what happens, we want to ensure that they are aware of options that will enable them to prioritize their families while also fulfilling their own expectations.