What We Offer
VIRTUAL PROGRAMMING
Veritas Varsity is a virtual school. This means that all our courses are offered on-line. Because the program is virtual our teachers can work with many students from various parts of the county, state, or even country, however, at this time the teacher class load is fifty students per teacher. We have two full-time teachers available to our students with certifications in English, math, and history, however, both have also taught secondary level science and foreign language classes. Our teachers provide virtually unlimited phone and computer support for the Core Curriculum and are available to students daily, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Phone support is on a call-back basis with all calls being returned within two hours if made before 3 p.m. and no later than by 10 a.m. the next day if made after 3 p.m. Computer (email) support is available on a similar basis.
Students participating in our virtual program must be highly motivated and strong, independent workers. Accordingly, Veritas is not for everyone. We provide more teacher support than most virtual schools, but there is no question that more responsibility lies with the student than would be the case in a more traditional program.
ACADEMICS
Veritas Varsity offers a challenging, but relevant, college preparatory academic regimen. While online textbooks are utilized, reading requirements go beyond these typical high school text summaries. The emphasis has been shifted from cursory exposure to summarized material found in traditional textbooks to independent and collaborative research, investigation, analysis, and deduction. Our students read more complete literary works in one year at Veritas than many students read in four years in a traditional high school! While focusing on the core subjects of history, English w/literature, science, math and foreign language study, Veritas also introduces students to several levels of business courses (including personal and business finance). We also support the arts through attendance of local and regional cultural events (for which credit is given). All students are presented with an academic regimen that not only prepares them for subsequent success in college, but also equips them with life skills essential for success in the business world.
3-YEAR GRADUATION
Veritas Varsity has maximized its scheduling efficiency in order to enable students in its full program to graduate in three years instead of four. In addition to an innovative schedule during the year that provides for earning more than the normal number of credits, our students are also required to take either independent study courses or dual credit courses from local community colleges during the summers between their 1st and 2nd years and again between their 2nd and 3rd years. Students also earn credit for their travel experiences, community service, and participation in evening events outside the normal school day. All these factors combine to make graduation in three years possible, though not required.
TRAVEL
The travel opportunities provided by Veritas Varsity are an exciting part of the school's programming and set it apart from all other programs, both virtual and traditional. These travel opportunities are provided as part of a fundamental belief that the world is our classroom, awaiting discovery, and that this discovery makes all the difference in providing a relevant educational experience for our students. Consequently, we provide regular opportunities for our students to see first-hand the world in which they live. Each semester we schedule an optional ten-day trip to expose our students to sites of historical, cultural, educational, and environmental significance. Foreign travel experiences are also offered to further enrich students' exposure to their world. Be sure to check out the "Semester Travel" page as well as the "Photo Gallery" page for pictures of sites visited by our students.
TEACHER MENTOR
Veritas Varsity employs a mentor approach to educating its students. A teacher-mentor plays a significant role in the development of each Veritas student. Although much of our school experience is dependent upon each student's maturity and responsibility, a mentor closely interacts with and supervises all assigned students daily for questions, discussion, feedback, and motivation. Yet, as important as this mentor is to our program, we do not view this individual so much as "expert" as "facilitator." We believe that older teenagers are highly competent scholars-in-the-making with the ability to self-explore and discover many truths through personal research and questioning. We work closely with parents and their teens to channel these natural tendencies in positive directions.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Veritas Varsity is committed, not only to preparing its students for college, but also to preparing them to be responsible, caring members of the community to which they belong. It is not enough that they be successful in the workplace at some future date. We believe that if we do not teach them to give back to the community that gives so much to them we have done an incomplete job in their training. Therefore, we have included opportunities in our schedule for community service projects like Waco Library, Habitat, Caritas, Adopt-a-Highway, and others.
RETREATS-FIELD TRIPS-SEMINARS
Retreats, including the mid-term Ski/Planning Retreat, provide the ideal environment for inspiring and challenging students, setting and evaluating personal and school goals, team-building, problem-solving, and character development. Seminars, both on and off campus introduce our students to topics and speakers of renown usually unavailable to most high-school students. Field trips to local or regional (as well as state) venues supplement classroom instruction and enrich the academic program.
TECHNOLOGY
From the daily online exercises like "This Day in History" and the College Board "SAT Question of the Day," to the online textbooks the students use throughout the day, our kids don't just talk about computers, they use them constantly. Their computers are an important link to their mentoring teacher, to other students involved in the program, as well as being a link to the real world outside the school classroom. Computers are used extensively for research and writing as well as for purposes mentioned above -- in other words, helping our students to "discover their world" and "make a difference" in their secondary education. Veritas also uses the B&N Nook electronic reader extensively for both its history and literature courses. Students are issued these devices at the beginning of the year and rely on them as a digital school and personal library from which the majority of the non-text books read throughout the year are accessed.
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