Casey (rising senior) and Grace (rising sophomore) Allshouse, from Clarksburg, PA have been students at PA Distance for years. Since enrolling, the siblings have improved their grades, developed friendships, and joined in on extracurricular activities within PA Distance and at their local district.
A common misconception surrounding the cyber charter school community is that enrolled students can no longer participate in their local district’s extracurricular activities like musical theater, marching band, intramural sports, and school dances. However, as long as the activity and all practices involved occur after the school day ends, students enrolled at cyber school institutions can still participate.
“They get to experience the best of both worlds on their terms,” Mrs. Allshouse explained. “They shouldn’t have to give up an extracurricular activity in their district because they found an academic environment that provides flexibility, academic growth, and special education support at PA Distance,” Mrs. Allshouse added.
Casey and Grace are a testament to this opportunity and don’t miss a minute of time doing what they love outside of school while thriving in class virtually at PA Distance. During the school year, they both participate in marching band and musical theater.
Their district’s marching band is separated into different parts: color guard/majorettes and the actual musical band. Color guard/majorettes are also split into three parts, flag, rifle, and baton. Casey leads the band, and keeps them in step, by playing the snare drum. Grace is a Majorette who twirls a baton and does flags and rifles on special occasions during half-time shows and parades.
“Marching band is a lot of work but it’s rewarding. We practice once a week during the fall football season,” Casey said. “I get to travel to different places and travel with the team and that’s really cool.”-3.png?width=363&name=Untitled%20design%20(13)-3.png)
“Depending on the song or specific event we are performing for, I’ll do flag, baton or rifle movements,” Grace explained. “We have to remember movements based on the count of the music. We get creative in how we remember our cues and it’s fun.”
In addition to marching band, Casey and Grace also perform in their musical theater shows during the school year. In the last several years, they have performed in a variety of musicals including Annie, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and The Addams Family.
If you ask his teachers or classmates at PA Distance, they’ll confirm that Casey loves to sing. When he’s not contributing to conversations in song form, he’s belting out a song on stage in a musical for his local district.
“I really like to sing,” Casey said. “My first musical was in 6th-grade,” Casey explained. “I played Pig Pen in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. It was my first main character role and my family always jokes that it fit me well.
“I also played Fester in the Addams Family musical last year. Since that was another lead role, I practiced after school every day leading up to the show,” he added.
Being involved in musicals gives Casey and Grace the opportunity to express themselves through song and dance. They look forward to the upcoming 2022-2023 school year so they can audition for a new one.
“From rehearsing the lines to learning the music and actually being able to embody my character - it was so fun. In Annie, my character, Molly, really fit my personality too,” Grace explained. “I also love hearing the reactions from the crowd during the show.”
“I like changing characters and putting my own spin on each one,” Casey noted.
“It’s fun to see how far we come over the months of rehearsals,” Grace added. “Seeing it all tie together at the end during the show is a great feeling. I love being a part of it.” Grace and Casey are careful to keep organized during the school year so that they can juggle all of their extracurricular activities and their school work. They use the PA Distance Google Calendar to keep track of their class schedule, assignments, club meetings, rehearsals and practices.
“I always make sure that I have my assignments done before I need to leave for my majorette practices or musical rehearsals,” Grace explained. “Keeping organized makes everything a lot easier.”
Through after-school clubs and activities at PA Distance and at their local district, Casey and Grace have no shortage of opportunities to form friendships and hang out with their friends. Casey is a member of the Video Game Club, Minecraft Club, Dungeons & Dragons Club, and the new eSports team. Grace is involved in the Dungeons & Dragons Club too.
Grace is also a member of the Seton Hill Dance Academy where she practices in the evenings during the week. Classes run from September through May with performances held in June. During her practices, Grace practices ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, hip-hop, contemporary, acro, and musical theater.
“I am a very independent learner, so PA Distance works well for me,” Grace explained. “Technology helps me stay in touch with friends and helps keep me organized with all my extracurricular activities.”
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About PA Distance Learning Charter School
Since 2004, PA Distance has been providing a welcoming virtual learning environment for students in grades K-12 across Pennsylvania. Students at PA Distance engage in a blended environment that combines “synchronous” and “asynchronous” learning.