Ashton Kolek would have a hard time focusing on his high school studies while also working 30-35 hours a week at a job that he finds not only financially helpful but also personally rewarding.

Markel Jackson stopped by Sarasota Acceleration Academies one day to eat pizza with his former classmates and teachers, to fill them in on his job and plans for the future — and to laugh, laugh and laugh some more.

Good things come in pairs, says the Chinese proverb. That’s certainly the case at the newly opened Lowcountry Acceleration Academy in Charleston.

For the caring educators at Sarasota Acceleration Academies, Tyree Ford says he’s not sure where he’d be — on the streets, running with the wrong crowd, maybe back in trouble with the law.

Math doesn’t come easily but, as Denisha Palmer can tell you, neither does life.