--- title: South Carolina Academies Join Throng at School Choice Rally description: Students, educators from Lowcountry Acceleration and Carolina Shores Acceleration Academies celebrate the right to choose a non-traditional high school. image: https://info.accelerationacademies.org/hubfs/LAA-Students-Rally-at-SC-Statehouse.jpg --- [![acceleration academies logo](https://www.accelerationacademies.org/wp-content/themes/acceleration-academies/library/images/placeholder/aa-logo.png) ![acceleration academies logo](https://www.accelerationacademies.org/wp-content/themes/acceleration-academies/library/images/placeholder/aa-logo-footer.png)](https://www.accelerationacademies.org/) - The Program « Back - [High School Completion](https://www.accelerationacademies.org/the-program/high-school-completion/) - [Our Flexible Approach](https://www.accelerationacademies.org/the-program/our-flexible-approach/) - [Personalized Teaching](https://www.accelerationacademies.org/the-program/personalized-teaching/) - 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At LAA, “we’re family and the coaches help us through our courses. Here, I actually get the one-on-one help I need.”  Lowcountry Assistant Director Bria Burke-Koskela said it was good for Shaylynn and her classmates to find themselves immersed in a group of young learners who are taking control of their educational destiny.  [Read more from our South Carolina public charter high schools.](https://info.accelerationacademies.org/blog/tag/south-carolina?hsLang=en) “We know that our GCs really appreciate the option to choose how and when they go to school,” says Burke-Koskela. “We wanted to give them a place where they were surrounded by other people celebrating the same idea.”  Before joining the LAA team when the school opened in 2021, Burke-Koskela taught English in a traditional South Carolina high school. Especially after the Covid pandemic, she said, she felt powerless to help some of her students from continuing to lose ground in a system not made for their individual needs.  “They were falling through the cracks,” she said of her former students. But that’s not the case at LAA, where she and other educators get to know each student on a deep level, helping them push through whatever academic and personal challenges may arise and mastering one course at a time.   “None of our students are going to fall through the cracks. Knowing who they are as people and what they’re going through matters to us first,” she says. “And it’s exciting to work at a school where the kids are choosing to be with us. They’re invested in their education in a really unique way.” ![Shaylynn Grant at Lowcountry Acceleration Academy.](https://info.accelerationacademies.org/hs-fs/hubfs/LAA-Shaylynn-Grant.jpg?width=1600&height=900&name=LAA-Shaylynn-Grant.jpg)*Shaylynn Grant* Shaylynn said being in a crowded traditional school fed her social anxiety, and that having to juggle multiple courses and deal with fights breaking out most every day took its toll. “I couldn’t focus at all.” At Lowcountry, she found a calm, studious environment with a learning community — educators and graduation candidates alike — who are invested in each others’ success.  “Before I came here, I would have Ds and Fs,” says Shaylynn, who plans to earn her commercial driver’s license and build a career in trucking. “But since I came here, I have nothing but straight As.”  Tuition-free public charter high schools [Lowcountry Acceleration Academy](https://www.accelerationacademies.org/our-locations/south-carolina/lowcountry/) in North Charleston, SC, and [Carolina Shores Acceleration Academy](https://www.accelerationacademies.org/our-locations/south-carolina/carolina-shores/) in Myrtle Beach, SC, serve students ages 14-20 and provide 24/7 online flexibility for high school completion. 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All rights reserved. [Privacy Policy](https://www.accelerationacademies.org/privacy-policy/) [Blog](https://www.accelerationacademies.org/blog/) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Jeffrey Good", "url" : "https://info.accelerationacademies.org/blog/author/jeffrey-good" }, "dateModified" : "2024-02-06T16:54:00.629Z", "datePublished" : "2024-02-06T16:08:47.000Z", "headline" : "South Carolina Academies Join Throng at School Choice Rally", "image" : [ "https://info.accelerationacademies.org/hubfs/LAA-Students-Rally-at-SC-Statehouse.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://info.accelerationacademies.org/blog/south-carolina-academies-join-throng-at-school-choice-rally", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://info.accelerationacademies.org/hubfs/AA-logo-2.png" }, "name" : "Acceleration Academies" } } ```