As COVID-19 struck, kids through the Denver Public School system went online.
Most returned to in-person classes. But hundreds stayed virtual.
For them, in-person learning involved too much stress, violence and squandered time. Many went to the Denver Online School, a public middle and high school with the slogan “DO MORE.”
On a windy Thursday evening, school administrators brought together most of the graduating class of 2024 for a rare in-person celebration at the All City Arena.
One by one, students, many of whom had never met in person, crossed a stage, a threshold from adolescence to adulthood, from online classes to whatever’s next: the workforce, apprenticeships, college or rest.
Meet six graduates.
The actor
Emmett Magyar’s three years at East High School years were tough.
Like most in his class, he started high school online during the pandemic. During his junior year, one student, Luis Garcia, was shot outside the school. Another student shot two deans before dying by suicide.
Magyar felt the school was too large and disorganized. He wasn’t connected to most teachers, and as an aspiring actor, he wasn’t getting much chance to perform on stage.
So he transferred to Denver Online for his last year, where he has thrived.
He’s studying acting and will continue to do so over the summer. Next year, he’ll participate in the Ascent Program, in which the state of Colorado will pay for his first year at Metropolitan State University. He plans to find a career path in college to supplement his acting.
“I've had a rough time at school, finding what I enjoy, what I don't enjoy, just finding somewhere I fit in,” he said. “So getting to test something out without paying full tuition is a gift.”
As he graduates, the big lesson he’s taking with him is that people shouldn’t settle.
“If something's hard, find a way to fix it,” he said.
The calligrapher
In Afghanistan, Shamsiah Ebdai’s father translated for the U.S. Army and feared violence during the war. When she was six months old, her family fled to the United States.
After a calm childhood, the pandemic hit while she was in middle school. Ebdai never said goodbye to her friends when the school went online.
Transitioning into high school behind a screen, she felt isolated and anxious — emotions she hadn’t felt much in elementary school.
So she took up hobbies like painting using Arabic calligraphy to help her calm down and ease her anxiety. She explored Taekwondo and boxing.
She decided to attend Denver Online because of the school’s flexibility and the possibility of taking college classes while completing her high school degree.
After graduation, inspired by her father’s work for the Army, she’s contemplating joining the National Guard to build and challenge herself. After the military, she’s interested in becoming a journalist.
She’s proud to have earned her high school education.
“It’s something nobody can take away from me,” she said. “Just making my parents proud just means a lot to me.”
The figure skater
Zolton Brady competes as a figure skater. He trains in 45-minute stints three to four times a day, five days a week.
When he experienced the flexibility of online education in the early days of the pandemic, he was sold. At the Denver Online School, which he attended since his junior year, his teachers, counselors, and administrators have supported him, and he finds his peers to be relaxed and kind.
For now, he’s healing from injuries. Physical therapy has been a regular part of his life, for months at a time.
When his latest injury occurred a few months back, he was despondent and unsure of his future.
But now his head’s in a better place. He plans to go to community college and explore his options as he regains his fitness to see whether he can compete again.
What does graduation mean to him?
“I don't really know what is going to happen next year,” he said. “So I think the thing it means most is just more freedom in what I want to do.”
The caretaker
Jayla Johnson left Thomas Jefferson High School for Denver Online School.
“I wanted to stay home with my family,” she said.
All throughout her education, she’s helped care for her siblings, two in middle school and one in preschool.
During the pandemic, her family realized they needed to buckle down because of the rising cost of living.
“It's both parents working,” she said. “I’m taking care of the siblings, a few chores and basically dinner every night. Except on the nights when both my parents are off, which is wonderful because we get to spend time as a family together.”
In the summer before Johnson’s senior year, the University of Denver reached out to her. She hadn’t planned on college, thinking it wasn’t worth the debt. But her parents said if DU was reaching out, there was a good chance they’d give her the tools and resources to go to school.
So she applied, got in and received a scholarship. She plans to study cybersecurity at DU for two years and possibly transfer to another school in Los Angeles, where she has extended family.
Graduation is a big deal for Johnson — especially since she used to hate school and couldn’t really figure out the point of it.
But eventually, she realized learning didn’t just happen in the classroom. She could study by herself and learn what she wanted to learn. She realized learning could actually be fun and would help her get a solid career.
“I'm very proud of myself for realizing that education is power,” she said.
The fighter
Aedyn Albrecht spent his first two years of high school at Northfield High School, online his freshman year and in-person his sophomore year.
Sitting in classrooms watching teachers who didn’t like him drone on seemed pointless. So he quit going to class and went to the gym instead. During the pandemic, he learned that exercise made him happier.
At first, he enjoyed playing football at school. However, his interest shifted toward Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. By his junior year, he decided to take his schooling online to control his schedule and spend more time training.
Denver Online teachers gave him personal attention Northfield’s didn’t offer, he said. At his new school, classes were smaller. Teachers focused on teaching rather than managing misbehaving students.
“It gave me the same amount of work,” he said. “It's just now I don't have to sit in a classroom for six hours.”
Albrecht plans to become a professional MMA fighter after he graduates. However, his parents worry about the toll fighting will take on his body.
“Obviously there's repercussions to it,” he said. “I'm physically putting my body in harm every day. So eventually there's gonna be bad things that happen to me. But it's worth it to me. I'd much rather be doing this than anything else.”
But if fighting doesn’t work out, he plans to become a firefighter.
“I just want to do something physical,” he said. Graduation is “mostly just to get me somewhere else. It's not going to be necessary as much if I do go my Plan A route, but it's mostly just for a fallback.”
For now, he’s struggling to find a job in the restaurant industry to pay for life as he trains.
The valedictorian
Karen Yadilexy Banuelos-Rojas’s life has gone like this:
She wakes up in the same room with her sister every morning. She feeds her breakfast and takes her to school. Then, Banuelos-Rojas returns home and focuses on her own education at Denver Online. She takes care of her sister again after school until their parents return from work.
Once her parents return, she heads out to her full-time job at La Fonda Mexican Restaurant.
After work, she drives to Sloans Lake, turns up classic corridos and clears her mind.
Then she's back home to sleep in the same room as her sister, and prepare to do it all again the next day.
Now, she’s graduated.
She received a 5.2 GPA, the highest in Denver Online’s history. By her sophomore year, she had completed her high school credits and began working on her associate's degree. A week before she graduated from high school, she graduated from community college with an associate's degree — the pride of her parents, both immigrants.
Over the summer, she’ll manage the books for her dad’s landscaping company and take a break from school. She received a prestigious Boettcher Scholarship and will be attending the University of Denver with a full ride next fall.
“I want to be a chief executive and financial analyst,” she said. “I want to own my own companies. I’ve thought about electrical … concrete, landscaping.”
Additionally, she wants to teach people in her community to manage their finances and build wealth.
Sometimes, working so hard, she wishes she saw her family more. At times, she has felt like slacking off and giving up. But ultimately, she’s committed to her dreams — for herself and her family.
“Sometimes you can be down,” she said. “You gotta go through the struggle and stay with the struggle.”
