PA Distance Class of 2020 graduate, Taylor Smith, will travel the furthest of her former classmates for her post-secondary education. She was accepted into the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama, and will begin her freshman year this fall.

Having lived in Alabama years ago, Taylor will be returning to a familiar place to begin her 4-year college journey. "The University of South Alabama has a great psychology program, so it was a great fit for me," she said.

"My heart isn't set on one career yet, but something within psychology," she said.

Taylor, from Honesdale, PA, enrolled at PA Distance for her senior year of high school after learning about it from a friend who attended. "My best friend, who is a student at PA Distance, told me that the teachers were caring and that they helped her improve her grades," she said. "She kept telling me how amazing it was, so I made the switch, too."

"Once I got the hang of things, I ended up doing a lot better academically than I did in my old school,” she said. “I came to enjoy it."

As a part of the Class of 2020, Taylor received a perfect attendance award and graduated with honors. She credits her teachers for helping keep her grades up and motivate her to work hard. "The teachers at PA Distance are dedicated to their jobs," she said. "You can tell they truly care about a student's improvement, and if you don't understand something, they want to help you. I really loved that about PA Distance."

The course options at PA Distance helped lead her to choose her college major. After enjoying class with social studies and psychology teacher, Ms. Petraglia, Taylor decided to major in it. "I really enjoyed my psychology class but also liked my chemistry and photography classes, too," she explained. "I like each subject, but the teachers made each class so much better."

Even though Taylor was only a student with PA Distance for a short time, she benefited from the personalized experiences nonetheless. "Honestly, my senior year was the best high school year I've ever had," she said. "I loved the live learning experience and my teachers were awesome."