FL 2030 Trailblazer Spotlight – Sam Verghese, Florida Virtual School
Tell us a little about your business.
Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is a fully accredited statewide public school district, offering full-time and part-time online education options for students in grades K-12. For 24 years, our certified teachers have worked one-on-one with students to understand their needs and ensure their success through our different online school options:
With FLVS Flex, students in Kindergarten through 12th grade can take one course or multiple courses. They work at their own pace and can enroll year-round.
FLVS Full Time combines the structure of a 180-day calendar of traditional schooling with the flexibility of online learning. As a full-time K-12 public school, FLVS Full Time becomes the primary school of record and issues a diploma to graduating seniors.
FLVS Global School serves students and school districts in all 50 states and more than 100 countries and territories around the world on a tuition basis.
Students have access to more than 190 courses – including core, elective/specials, Advanced Placement, and Career and Technical Education courses – all developed specifically for the online learning environment to ensure students’ success. FLVS Flex and FLVS Full Time are tuition-free for Florida residents and courses are taught by state-certified teachers.
FLVS also offers innovative educational solutions for every school district’s need, from effective, engaging digital courses to easy-to-use online platforms, customized teacher training, unparalleled customer service, and dedicated technical support. In Florida, FLVS supports every school district with teacher training and tech solutions, while nationally, FLVS digital curriculum is used in nearly every state, more than 60 countries, and 3 U.S. territories.
Why did you join the Florida Chamber Foundation Board of Trustees, and what would you say to other business leaders about the benefit and value of this relationship?
With a strong focus on long-term, forward-thinking actionable areas that will ultimately grow Florida’s economy, the impact that strengthening our education system can have to achieve this growth is clear. Joining the Foundation’s Board of Trustees provides an incredible opportunity to not only advocate and work towards this goal, but to also ensure that Florida Virtual School continues to innovate, developing digital curriculum and online education solutions that are relevant to the state’s future workforce.
What are your particular goals/areas of interest as it applies to reaching the Florida 2030 Blueprint goals?
As a leader in online education, Florida Virtual School goals are in alignment with the Chamber’s pillars of driving the state’s talent pipeline for a better workforce, and diversifying the economy by creating technology jobs, especially in the fast-growing online education industry.
Florida Virtual School equips tomorrow’s workforce with the skills they need to succeed, to continue growing and building our communities. Our overall goal is to equitably deliver online learning solutions to students in Florida and around the nation, with student achievement, innovation, and operation excellence as our guiding pillars:
Student Achievement: Delivering instructional excellence for all students to achieve student success, subject mastery, and high performance.
Innovation: Investing in and developing new innovative learning solutions, including new disruptive technologies, designing new digital curriculum and courses, building state-of-the-art data infrastructure and offering timely and relevant solutions to school districts.
Operational Excellence: Increasing operational efficiencies of financial, technological, and human resources, while delivering exceptional value to students worldwide.
As a not-for-profit, our organization reinvests revenue into new technologies, high quality new courses, and other resources for Florida students.
As the future of education becomes more focused on personalized learning experiences, leaving behind the one-size-fits-all education model, FLVS continues to focus on individualized learning for every student. Our vision is to evolve our online platforms as state-of-the-art technology to assess students’ current knowledge, direct them through gaps in their knowledge, and formatively and summatively assess their acquisition of that knowledge; with guidance, as needed, from highly qualified, certified teachers to ensure content mastery.
Click here to learn about the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Board of Trustees who are working together to steer Florida towards long-term solutions.