Nexus Academy student stays on track with blending learning model

Zia Durnin has experience with many educational models. She was homeschooled for elementary school, tried a year of online education during middle school, and attended a public high school in Oregon. Now enrolled as a high school junior at Nexus Academy Cleveland, she’s found the combination that works for her. She spends four hours a day on the Nexus campus which gives her the peer and teacher interaction that she likes. The blended curriculum the Nexus offers, combining classroom and online instruction, gives her the opportunity to work at the individualized pace she needs.

Zia likes that the expectations are clear at Nexus: how many hours a day she should be working and what assignments need to be done each week. “It’s really obvious when you get behind,” she says. “You get a message – overdue lesson!” She finds it easier to be self-motivated because she doesn’t want to get behind, but still wants to work on her own schedule. “It’s up to me as long as I get it done,” she explains.

She thinks working online, both at home and on campus, is more efficient than a traditional classroom. She gets more done in the same amount of time because she’s not occupied with “busywork” while the teacher tries to work with a roomful of students who all have different needs.

Zia plans to attend Kent State University to major in fashion design.