Sophomore Bella Schneweis not only attends BV but also takes online classes at Stanford Online High School. 

“I decided during middle school that I didn’t really have the best experience,” Schneweis said. “I wanted to try an online school and OHS was one of the schools I decided to apply to.” 

The application process consisted of writing two essays, getting letters of recommendation, submitting previous grades, submitting volunteer hours and a list of extracurricular activities. After submitting all of that, all that was left to do was wait and see if she got accepted.

“I had to wait four months to see if I got in,” Schneweis said. “And then once I did, I had to take a bunch of placement tests the summer before I started for my courses.”

Instead of attending class in a school building Schneweis is able to attend class from the comfort of her own home. 

“We use Adobe Connect,” Schneweis said. “It’s pretty similar to Zoom, just a different platform.”

One major benefit of online school is the flexibility that it offers. 

“The summer before, I get to pick what times I want to take classes,” Schneweis said. “I can do classes, or homework, wherever.”

However, online school is not for everyone. Being productive from home is a skill that comes easier to some. 

“Typically I’m able to stay pretty focused without any distractions,” Schneweis said. “But sometimes it can be challenging especially if my brother wants to have friends over — it can be hard with a lot of background noise.” 

Schneweis takes honors bio, sociology, modern world history and strength and conditioning at BV. At OHS, Schneweis is able to take other courses that are not offered at BV.

“Online I’m in intermediate Spanish, the history of philosophy science, honors modes of writing and argumentation, pre-calculus and trig, and honors environmental science,” Schneweis said.

With the difficult courses, it is important to have access to help from teachers when needed. 

“If I need to email them for any reason they usually are good about getting back in a couple hours and we also have a tutor system,” Schneweis said. “You can go to the website and ask the people who got the highest grades and who had the best understanding of that class from the previous years your questions and they’ll be able to help you as well.”

Despite having a full schedule, Schneweis is involved in swim at BVH. There are no sports offered at OHS, but there usually are many opportunities for the students to connect.

“They have dances, so I went to one and I got to see them,” Schneweis said. “But as of right now, every other event that we were supposed to have has been canceled because of COVID.” 

Schenewis still has two years left in high school, and she hopes to be able to meet more of her OHS classmates during that time.

“As of right now I am planning on continuing with both schools,” Schneweis said. “I don’t technically need the Blue Valley credit, I’m more or less just taking it for fun. So if there was ever a time where my schedule couldn’t fit [BV], I would go to fully online school.”