One of the speakers at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference was 18-year-old Donovan Cleckley – joined above by State Superintendent of Education Dr. Tommy Bice (l). Cleckley is a recent graduate of Isabella High School in Clanton and winner of the 2015 ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide) Student of the Year award. Here is Cleckley’s personal account of what ACCESS has meant to him.

As a graduated senior from a rural Alabama school preparing to attend the University of Montevallo, I can absolutely say that my choice to take courses using ACCESS Distance Learning technology put me on a path toward success and understanding.

For me, the bare minimum of work has never quenched my thirst to learn. At my school, there were no Advanced Placement (AP) courses or social and behavioral classes that could challenge me and enhance my academic and cultural knowledge.

ACCESS enabled me to experience courses which were culturally enriching and academically rigorous. These included AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, Creative Writing, Theatre I, Global Studies, Psychology, AP Psychology, Sociology, French I, and French II.

Donovan Cleckley is joined by his parents Wayne and Vickie.

While all of these courses benefited my writing and cultural knowledge, my favorite ones, the two AP English courses, impacted my understanding of language and literature and helped lead to my decision to major in English.

After taking ACCESS AP English Language my junior year, I was able to compose complex papers on course topics that synthesized both old and new information.

One of the most memorable portions of the course explored the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance authors. Through the course, I came face to face with a novel titled Their Eyes Were Watching God by Alabama native Zora Neale Hurston. It changed my perspective on literature.

Using a pencil to underline the symbols or figurative language, I became much more involved in the work. The pear tree, one of my favorite symbols, represented an unattained state of true satisfaction.

After reading Hurston’s work and pieces by Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Claude McKay, I realized that different voices in literature can come together as one collective voice of artistic color. Some excerpts from John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath and his essay “I Remember the Thirties” coupled with Hurston’s essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” were truly monumental in shaping how I look at literature. It became a sort of puzzle, as I searched for pieces that fit together.

Beginning ACCESS AP English Literature my 12^th-grade year was an exciting experience because I had a revitalized interest in the arrangement of literary pieces and its direct effect on the process and progress of student learning. My favorite aspect of the course was its collection of thematic units involving major works such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening.

The units centered around Shelley and Chopin were the absolute highlights of the coursework for me. I was fascinated by how their literature could convey humanity from different points of view. From Shelley’s stark depiction of the creator Victor Frankenstein and his struggle with the Creature, to Chopin’s portrait of a woman attaining her true individual freedom as represented by the “caged bird” Edna Pontellier, my knowledge grew as I was exposed to the richness of these inspirational works of art.

Writing and literature have always been passions of mine. With ACCESS, I was able to broaden the scope of my understanding related to my future career in the field of English. I have gained valuable skills that will accompany me on a new path – to higher education at the University of Montevallo.

Read more on the Alabama Educational Technology Conference here.

By Donovan Cleckley, Guest Columnist