Gates Scholar credits virtual learning with helping him thrive
Sep 21, 2026
(WPDE) — For Desmond Vereen, the classroom that worked best did not have four walls.
The recent high school graduate says moving from a traditional brick-and-mortar school to virtual learning in middle school gave him something he struggled to find in a regular classroom: the ability to focus.
“Traditional classroom, it’s just very hard to focus,” Desmond said. “Because of that, my grades kind of slightly suffered.”
Desmond said his grades improved after making the switch to the Cyber Academy of South Carolina (CASC). By high school, he said he was earning mostly A’s while taking honors and dual-enrollment courses.
He also said virtual learning gave him more individualized support and room to work through subjects he found challenging.