Dan was bright but angry about the rules and constrictions of school.

Summer, 2003. School’s out…and I know that I am not going back to Holyoke High School again. I can’t go back to that, where I get a detention for being late to school, even if I still make it to classes on time…where even the teachers care as much as the students: very, very little. My name is Dan, I’m 16, and I’m out of high school.

A year ago, it was obvious to me that another conventional year was not what I needed, and it certainly wasn’t what I wanted. I started to look for another school that had something to offer in which I was interested. I looked at charter schools, vocational, public, private, parochial and whatever else I could think of, until finally I was presented with an option that I never even knew existed.

How could I get into a good college if I dropped out and went to a place like North Star?

The idea was that it would give me the chance to offer myself anything I wanted to do. I wouldn’t have to look around for something that suited me; I could create my own education. I wouldn’t have to be subjected to the prefabricated curricula forced on me in the days of 25-student classrooms with rows and columns of desks, each of which, held one very bored kid. I was one kid who wished for snow days every day. I hated being stuck inside on a beautiful day.

Why not instead choose the content I want to learn, and use that to make it work to my advantage? I learn more in a day from the people I meet at North Star than I learned all year in a concrete and brick building with fluorescent lighting and barred windows. It’s the environment, it’s the freedom, and it’s the responsibility that I was asking for. It’s the guidance that has allowed me to build, from the ground up exactly what suited me, tailored to my tastes.

It sounds too good to be true. I’m starting to feel a little nervous that I’m going to screw something up. How in the world am I going to get this all together?

Yeah, I was nervous. I wasn’t a bad student in school. I had adapted to the structure, and I made good grades, but I felt like I had no way of preparing to go into North Star September 1st. Luckily the ground there is as soft as the walls are wide. I hit hard and fast, but the supportive environment was there to help me keep my balance. I took as many classes as I could at North Star, and slowly eliminated the ones that weren’t grabbing me as much as the others. I got a job, and started to get into Shakespeare.

The classes offered at North Star cover a broad range of subjects. Even though each may not appeal to everyone, they are bound to spark some sort of interest in anyone just by hearing the names. Japanese, Dreams, Yoga, Social Issues, Disability and the Media…that’s just a sample of the classes offered. Every one of them is dynamic, and adaptable to peoples’ needs. I’ve been spreading out my interests in every direction for the past five months, and I have never felt as good as I do now.

October. I’ve started to take an Economics course at HCC, and I’m getting an A. I only took one just to test the waters, but I think that I will take Philosophy and Psychology next semester now that I have an idea of what the workload is like. I’m sure I can do well in those classes too. I feel like I’ve settled right into my new lifestyle, and it really wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be, but it was a lot more fun than I had anticipated.

As of right now, I am planning on starting a business bottling and selling homemade root beer in the area. It caught on with the kids at North Star after I made a batch and gave a few to some friends. The next day I brought in a few extra bottles and they were sold within minutes. Bob Lowry (teacher of Business class at North Star, and owner of Bueno y Sano in Amherst) mentioned that I should consider selling it on a larger scale around the area and has since offered to help me put together a business plan. His help is just one of the many resources available to me at North Star.

April. A year ago, I certainly wasn’t thinking about being a college student, and an entrepreneur, chock-full of ideas about philosophy, religion and classic literature, all the while, being a dropout with a GED Diploma. Now does that fit the stereotype of a 16 year old?

I’ve always wanted to be my own person, and I thought I was…but I was still the same old normal high school student that I didn’t want to be. Not anymore. I’ve made my own unique lifestyle, and many other people at North Star have done, can, and will do the same thing.

I have two more years than most people my age have to do anything I feel drawn to do. When I turn 18, and it’s time for me to head off to college (or maybe something else) I can show admissions that long list of wild things I’ve been doing for two years, and be confident they’ll accept me gladly.

I have long term plans to get an RN degree before I go to a four year college, and hopefully work at a local hospital as a nurse for my income while getting another degree in something else. Everything I mentioned here came about within the last eight months. Now, a year seems like a lot of time to do whatever I want, and it’s almost like I’ve got three extra years in my life.