Originally published in the Sun Post Herald on May 31, 2023
Gamers often wish they could reset in the real world.
That’s exactly what North Olmsted resident and Ohio Virtual Academy (OHVA) student Jordan Bruce felt like as an elementary school student — like an immature video game player unable to navigate in a foreign digital world.
“I went to public school, where I had bad grades and lots of detentions,” said Jordan, 17. “I was more concerned about making people laugh and being the class clown than doing my homework.
“I was a pretty bad student. Then I joined OHVA in about sixth grade, where ever since I’ve literally had straight As.”
Every gamer has experienced convoluted journeys with different levels of difficulty that, on a dime, become clear as day and leave them with a confident sense of purpose.
For Jordan, that moment came when he discovered OHVA’s career tech education (CTE) curriculum.
“Ever since I first picked up a controller, game design is all I wanted to do,” he said. “I was really young — probably 4 or 5 years old. But I specifically joined our CTE program because I noticed there was a game design class. That was my sole focus of being here.”
OHVA programming teacher Aaron Lyman early on witnessed Jordan’s passion for video game design.
“Jordan has been a great student pretty much from the beginning,” Lyman said. “It was just his questions in class and participation. He was talking about some of his favorite games.
“As the year went on, he would stay after class and tell me projects he was working on.”
What Jordan and his OHVA online learning classmates have been working on as of late is an interactive escape room video game called “Sealed Whispers,” which is expected to be finished in June.
“I’ve been big into smaller-team horror games for years now, so I have some experience,” Jordan said. “Most of the games I’ve played, the story is very shallow. In our game, we’re going deep into narrative, which I think is really important.”
Up next for Jordan is college — studying game design and cybersecurity — after a planned gap year to hone his video game designer skills.
Considering that this is graduation season, what’s become clear to this teenager is something he eagerly wants to share with his peers — the secret sauce to finding one’s life calling.
“When it comes to your passions, it’s important for people to realize you have to put a lot of time into it,” Jordan said. “You get out what you put in.
“Considering I worked three or four hours a day for more than two months on ‘Sealed Whispers,’ you know you’re meant to do something if you’re willing to put in that time without any complaints.”
To learn more about Ohio Virtual Academy, visit https://ohva.k12.com/.
