Five rings hang from my bedroom wall. Olympic dreams were much simpler in junior high. I would never allow a day to end without touching those rings and thinking, I´ll make it. I was a normal student who went to class, did homework, and had friends. All my spare time was spent training with the horses. Riding is my passion and in my dreams I was an Olympian.

During my first year of high school I was diagnosed with chronic, intractable migraines. I struggled to keep pace with my classmates amidst missed classes and lectures clouded over by the side effects of heavy analgesics. My grades and subsequently my hopes began to plummet. I tore the rings from my wall as I found myself unable to train with the horses. My dreams were replaced with nightmares of failure and despair. This painful decent culminated in my junior year as hope of graduation dissipated; however much I loved school, my medical condition made it impossible to learn in a traditional classroom setting. I was faced with failing classes. Spring eased to summer and with it came the inevitable, and unenviable, prospect of summer school. I was petrified. Here was my chance to earn back credit; however, I was faced with the same problem: attendance. Presented with my unusual situation, my school district offered me another option. I met Mr. Robert Eichorn who would become my teacher and who introduced me to NovaNET.

For years I had searched for a solution to my problem and I finally found it in NovaNET. Through the Computer Enhanced Instruction Program (CEI) I was able to work in a very focused and positive atmosphere for two hours per day with direct teacher support in school. When my migraines prevented me from attending, I logged on to NovaNET from home during the day or night. This allowed me to learn on my own time and to actually progress quickly in my classes. I hung my Olympic rings back on my bedroom wall and my dream was reborn.

Because CEI and NovaNET made such an improvement with my learning and subsequent grades, I opted to take all of my senior classes through NovaNET. NovaNET brought me from a student struggling to keep her head above water in classes to an honor roll achiever who will walk with the Class of 2007 to graduate with an Advanced Diploma.

Without the priceless help and encouragement from my teachers at CEI and the NovaNET program, I know in my heart that I could not have made it to where I am and more importantly, would never make it to where I am headed. In September I plan on pursuing higher education at my first choice college, studying for a major in English and a minor in Equine Science and being one step closer to my dream of riding in the Olympics. NovaNET did not make my dream come true. It gave me the tools and confidence to go after it.