John Stogiera is living out his dream. The son of an Air Force veteran, he had always hoped that one day he could follow in his father’s footsteps. Now, after becoming just the second Primavera Online High School student to ever be accepted into the Air Force, it’s becoming a reality. But the journey hasn’t come without its share of obstacles. From growing up overseas and needing to relocate back to the United States, to falling behind in school and requiring an accelerated alternative, he’s learned the value of hard work, perseverance and even the benefit of an online education.

John spent the majority of his childhood growing up in central Thailand, just south of the country’s capital city, Bangkok. Along with his three younger brothers, John enjoyed the fruits of a youth being raised in a foreign locale, exploring wild Thai jungles and riding his bike to the beach. However, there was one thing that John was sorely without and that was a well-rounded education that could help him achieve his dream of entering the Air Force.

“We were lacking the education living overseas,” recalled his father, John Sr. “I was really disappointed with that. When he and his brother were of elementary school age, I took them to Western Australia and got their basic education before moving them back to Thailand.”

“I decided, after home schooling them for two years, which went very well for them but was not very easy for me, to repatriate myself and move back here to the United States.”

John and his family moved back to Arizona three years ago in hopes of finding a school that could provide him the type of education that could get him up to speed with traditional American students and hopefully help him become qualified for the Air Force.

After originally enrolling in a Maricopa public middle school, John made the switch to a nearby charter school less than a year later in hopes of finding a more challenging alternative. Still dissatisfied with his options, John Sr. continued to look for the right fit for his boys while they tried to get settled in their new learning environment.

“The charter school was much better but they were lacking a strong English program and I thought that was the most important program,” he said. “I mean, it was really, really bad.”

But that all changed during a weekend family outing to the Chandler Mall when John noticed a sign for Primavera Online High School (in the food court), promising a personalized and rigorous online education.

“I did some research and made the first phone call and we just started from there,” said John Sr. “John was the first one. He finished the year at the charter school and then we started at Primavera in August of 2011.”

In the process of moving back to Arizona and in between schools, John had fallen behind in school, something that needed to be corrected and made the transition to Primavera so appealing. The ability to get ahead and graduate on time, or even sooner, along with a receiving a fully-accredited and challenging education, sealed the deal.

“I think it was a very good experience for me because I was behind in graduating and the classes enabled me to work at the pace I needed to work,” he said. “My father had me on a basic school schedule; wake up on time and then work seven hours each day on school stuff. Fifty minutes sessions with a 10 minute break and just doing that I was able to get more work done in a week than I could get done at a traditional school in a couple of months.”

“Parents have to be involved,” added his father.

Under the watchful eye of his father and through the use of the Primavera block schedule, John was able to make up for the classes he missed along the way and not only got caught up, but graduated early from high school.

“For graduating early, the teachers at Primavera were very helpful,” commented John. “The moment I needed something, they immediately offered a time and day to help me with whatever I needed. And that was with everything, whether it was Math, Chemistry or English, they were always available to help. And especially with the distance problem, they would have Adobe sessions where we would be able to talk to each other and solve problems together easily.”

John’s well-disciplined approach to online learning and time management skills not only helped him earn his diploma early but also set him on the right path for reaching the next step in his life. The Primavera graduate proudly reported one of the top scores on his entrance exams into the Air Force, enabling him to become qualified for top secret intelligence training.

“With Primavera being online, it really helped me because now the testing for the military is done online,” said John. “It’s all online testing. It’s all computerized timed. Basically, going to Primavera has gotten me used to using the computer and I wasn’t stressed or anything.”

“It became routine,” continued John Sr. “He was in a test with these other people who weren’t familiar with online testing and said you could tell because they were looking at the timer and were freaked out and didn’t know what to do, but it was just normal for him because he has been doing it for two years now.”

“What I really like about Primavera, in every single class there are mandatory essay writing assignments and that’s something that, unfortunately, isn’t the case in traditional high schools right now,” he added.

For now, with his diploma already in hand, John anxiously anticipates the next phase in his life. As he awaits his call to report for basic training at the Lackland Air Force base outside of San Antonio, Texas, John spends his remaining free time working a serving job he picked up after graduating and working on his conditioning.

His dad continues to help him prepare for what lies ahead, but after all the changes he’s endured and hard work he’s put in, John admits he’s looking forward to completing the journey.

“The main thing that I’m excited about is I get to travel,” he said. “Depending on the job I get, or the job they enlist me for, I can go anywhere. I can go to Germany or go to Korea or Japan. I can basically go and get stationed somewhere at an air force base and do my job. And I’ll be there for free, living on the air force base or renting out an apartment or just travel.”

For a young man who has spent most of his life bouncing from continent to continent, it’s only fitting for him to see himself taking off again, in search of his next big adventure. With the knowledge and tools he’s developed at Primavera, and the steady guidance of his father, of course, no challenge is too big for John.