Letter to the editor: Charter school prepared her well

Regarding Kenneth Gatten’s op-ed “We must amend Pa.’s charter school law now” (Aug. 22, TribLIVE): I am a 2020 graduate of Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA). My experience at CCA profoundly impacted my life. I utilized the school’s dual-enrollment program to take advanced placement and college classes to graduate with 33 college credits.

I completed an amazing internship at CCA’s AgWorks, the largest educational aquaponics laboratory in the country, gaining hands-on experience with aquaponics and robotics engineering. My team invented an automated plant seeder, which led to me giving a TEDx talk on “How to Truly Solve A Problem.” I was accepted by Amazon as a paid software development engineer intern, and was awarded a $40,000 Amazon scholarship and a $25,000 National Honor Society scholarship.

I attribute all of these wonderful opportunities to CCA. CCA allowed me to participate in clubs, where I made many new friends and obtained national leadership training. The flexible schedule enabled me to pursue extracurricular activities, such as learning computer science and becoming certified in CPR and AED. The teachers are caring and empowered us to succeed.

My experience at CCA was one of joy and happiness that I will carry with me throughout my life. I am grateful for CCA and highly recommend it.

Madison Lucey

Milford