In attempt to reduce high school dropout rates, one non-profit organization is promoting an alternative way for students to receive their diplomas.
According to CBS Los Angeles, Boys & Girls Clubs in California have partnered with nearby Vista Real Charter High School to give graduating seniors a less traditional learning option. Teens can now take classes at Boys & Girls Club teen centers which will count toward their graduation requirements.
“Every student is different, and they learn differently,” Vista Real principal Corrine Manley told CBS News. “We’re giving them a safe place, relationships with adults that are safe, and we work with the kids one-on-one."
Watch the video above to learn more about the Boys & Girls Club's new program.
In addition to targeting dropouts, the program is also aimed to help students who learn better outside of traditional high school settings and who have fallen behind in their requirements.
While programs like the Boys & Girls Club are coming up with different solutions to help teens complete their high school degrees, some students are also taking their education into their own hands.
An after-school program called Minddrive -- a non-profit that uses electric car design to inspire at-risk teens -- brought attention to how innovative forms of education has positive effects on students. In May, the Missouri teens involved in the program restored a Volkswagen from 1967, engineered the car to be powered by social media interactions (like hashtagging #MindDrive) and used this "social fuel" to drive to Washington D.C.
Once they arrived in the nation's capital, they met with elected officials to talk about the importance of creative educational programs.
Back in March, students from Massachusetts also promoted a new kind of learning at their school. Select teens opted to participate in a program called the Independent Project, an alternative school within the public high school that's solely run by students. They decided and organized their own curriculum without any teachers or parents.
"I have dyslexia so it’s very hard reading and writing and doing those sorts of things. School has always been a big problem for me," one participant named Sergio explained. "If not for this program, I don’t know if I’d be graduating -- I don’t know where I’d be right now."
What do you think of these alternative learning programs? Tell us in the comments or tweet at @HuffPostTeen.
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