Josselyn Green, a senior from Waterville, has been named Maine Connections Academy‘s February 2020 STAR Student of the Month. She was selected from students throughout the state, who has shown particular accomplishments and spirit, according to a news release from the academy.

This is Green’s sixth year at the academy. She has been with the school since it launched in the fall of 2014. Prior to that, she was homeschooled. For Green, online school has given her the ability to study at her own pace. She describes it as “a really good balance, between what a public school offers you and what homeschooling offers you,” according to the release.

Green has been taking dual-credit college courses, where what she is taught in high school at the academy is identical to courses offered at the University of Maine Fort Kent. “It’s been a really good, eye-opening experience. I‘m getting my credits early in British Lit and American Government. It’s been really awesome—challenging in a good way,” Green said, according to the release.

For students thinking about options as they approach middle or high school, “I would put in a good word for MCA. I got a friend to go there. She wanted to work independently, and that’s what an online school offers. There’s a healthy balance, and it isn’t distracting. You have the freedom to do your schoolwork when it works for you, at your own pace,” Green said, according to the release.

Outside of school, Green works at Dairy Queen in Waterville, as a shift leader and cake decorator. Plus, she’s been involved with 4-H since she was 5 or 6 years old. “One of the things 4-H taught me was public speaking. I used to be hesitant to speak in public, but I was required to do it through 4-H and now I help younger kids learn how to speak in public,” Green said, according to the release.

Next year, Green aims to go to the University of Maine, perhaps to the University of Southern Maine. Her goal is to major in programs that steer her towards the legal profession.

The academy’s teaching center is based in Scarborough.