THORNTON, COLO. -
High school seniors are collecting their diplomas across Colorado, but not all of them took the conventional path in achieving that goal.
Ryan Mattucks, a 19-year-old from Thornton, left Horizon High School in his sophomore year, and didn't know at that point where he was headed.
"It really wasn't working for me," he said Wednesday. "I was really just living the life of not really trying to go to school much, and just hanging out with friends. I really wasn't making right decisions when I was going there, just not going to school and cutting class sometimes.
"I didn't get kicked out of Horizon. I decided to withdraw and then I really didn't know what I wanted to do."
He soon found a home at Hope Online Learning Academy, a secondary school "co-op" chartered through the Douglas County School system, with roughly 3,100 students attending Web-based classes on about 40 campuses throughout Colorado, most of them in the Denver metro area. Six of those campuses, or "learning centers," are operated by Front Range Academy, and it was at one of the Broomfield sites that Mattucks earned his degree.
"If you come here it's because something else didn't work," said Mattucks, "and when you come here, the teachers are all willing to meet you on your own level, where you're at. Because every student here is in a different place. There's not one student that's the same."
Hope Online utilizes a system that, in addition to teachers on site at each learning center, also includes monitors, who are available to work with students on a direct on-one-on basis.
"Even if it's not necessarily school related, even if it's problems at home or something, I felt like I could always talk to my trackers - which are teachers - about anything, really. And I thought it was nicer than having teachers who would come down on you all the time."
But even after Mattucks made his switch to Hope Online, he wasn't completely focused on his future, until April 2008, when his closest friend committed suicide.
"The thing that was weird about that was that he wasn't really showing any signs of being suicidal or anything like that," Mattucks said. "And we were really good friends, hanging out every day like brothers. He was just partying a lot and going out and drinking and carrying on, and stuff like that."
Mattucks had been his friend's partner in much of that activity.
"When he killed himself, it was just a real eye-opener, that all that behavior doesn't really get you anywhere - just, I mean, having bad thoughts, and not going to school."
Now, after picking up his diploma as one of this year's 130 graduates who will be honored June 11 in a ceremony at the Metropolitan State College Event Center, Mattucks will head off this fall either to Metro or Red Rocks Community College, then pursue a career in criminal justice.
Ryan Mattucks, a 19-year-old from Thornton, left Horizon High School in his sophomore year, and didn't know at that point where he was headed.
"It really wasn't working for me," he said Wednesday. "I was really just living the life of not really trying to go to school much, and just hanging out with friends. I really wasn't making right decisions when I was going there, just not going to school and cutting class sometimes.
"I didn't get kicked out of Horizon. I decided to withdraw and then I really didn't know what I wanted to do."
He soon found a home at Hope Online Learning Academy, a secondary school "co-op" chartered through the Douglas County School system, with roughly 3,100 students attending Web-based classes on about 40 campuses throughout Colorado, most of them in the Denver metro area. Six of those campuses, or "learning centers," are operated by Front Range Academy, and it was at one of the Broomfield sites that Mattucks earned his degree.
"If you come here it's because something else didn't work," said Mattucks, "and when you come here, the teachers are all willing to meet you on your own level, where you're at. Because every student here is in a different place. There's not one student that's the same."
Hope Online utilizes a system that, in addition to teachers on site at each learning center, also includes monitors, who are available to work with students on a direct on-one-on basis.
"Even if it's not necessarily school related, even if it's problems at home or something, I felt like I could always talk to my trackers - which are teachers - about anything, really. And I thought it was nicer than having teachers who would come down on you all the time."
But even after Mattucks made his switch to Hope Online, he wasn't completely focused on his future, until April 2008, when his closest friend committed suicide.
"The thing that was weird about that was that he wasn't really showing any signs of being suicidal or anything like that," Mattucks said. "And we were really good friends, hanging out every day like brothers. He was just partying a lot and going out and drinking and carrying on, and stuff like that."
Mattucks had been his friend's partner in much of that activity.
"When he killed himself, it was just a real eye-opener, that all that behavior doesn't really get you anywhere - just, I mean, having bad thoughts, and not going to school."
Now, after picking up his diploma as one of this year's 130 graduates who will be honored June 11 in a ceremony at the Metropolitan State College Event Center, Mattucks will head off this fall either to Metro or Red Rocks Community College, then pursue a career in criminal justice.
