Being a Student at Via Vita

Please welcome our passionate and hard working guest blogger, Lyss Casey, a grade eight student here at Via Vita.  We are so pleased to hear Lyss' thoughts on Via Vita, as we have enjoyed supporting and inspiring her through life and junior high. Hope you enjoy the read! 

Being a student at Via Vita is such an amazing experience, and that’s not just me pulling a bunch of compliments out of my mouth!

Every day is entertaining in its own little way.

Most nights I go to sleep thinking to myself that I won’t be satisfied but when I wake up I get that little spark of excitement to get everything done and wait to head to school.
I’ve never been a fan of big projects, I found them to be a waste of time because you end up learning everything beforehand then making a cut and paste project by shortening notes on a boring slideshow and fall asleep on your desk listening to others… sounds horrible, right?

Not at Via Vita!

I’ve noticed every project feels so fresh and new here. It’s so fun to lead in a project that you want to do! You’re allowed to add personality to your projects, your research is all on your own, giving you so much freedom to learn. You learn as much as you are comfortable with - the project research is one of my favourite parts of doing projects here. It’s so interesting to find a medium that you can study with - videos, websites, blogs, songs, art, etc. You name it, you can do it here!
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Another thing I’m fond of is leading so many wonderful displays. We do a bunch of theatre during the end of terms and it’s my favourite part of school so far.  I’ve written two entire play scripts and directed both for class! It really helps boost confidence and public speaking. You can learn a lot from theatre - directing is something I’d never think I would like, I’ve always been the actor in plays, but since I’m more of a leader than a follower, being a director for a change is so fun! You get to improve your classmates, improve yourself and learn so many cool things about singing, acting, and directing. It’s such an amazing opportunity to have students lead, write, and act out entire 40 minute plays in the span of one month!

The teachers here at Via Vita are so nice and engage each student. You can trust them to listen to you whenever you need them to. It’s good to finally have a trustworthy teacher that I can talk to like they’re a close friend or relative. They listen to any complaints and change things to satisfy while also being fair. They give you freedom that you deserve, like the oldest students me and Charlotte can go to Tim Hortons at lunch! It’s such a breath of fresh air to have some freedom for once at school!
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Overall being a student in Via Vita is a blast of fun, learning and personal interest squished into an amazing first year. I can’t wait for more students to join this wonderful school! ​