JOPLIN, Mo. — An area high school senior has taken advantage of the Joplin School District’s different educational options, to get a head start on his career.

It’s not unusual for students about to finish high school to go on a senior trip. But Jak Stanley, a student at the Joplin Virtual Academy has gone on several of them.

Jak Stanley, Program Participant, said, “I went to Houston in October, I just went to New York last week, I’m about to go to Miami and then to L.A. and back to Houston and New York.”

But these aren’t vacations, they’ve been business trips. While he’s been taking virtual classes, he’s also building a career as a music producer.

“I make beats, which is the background music in any song so I do all styles of music, I do rap, I do R & B, hip hop, I do all types and so I make the pianos and the drums and everything and put them all together”

Not just any student could build a career and do school work at the same time, but Shelly Tarter says Stanley isn’t your average teenager.

Shelly Tarter, Joplin Online & Alternative Administrator, said, “Yes, you need to be a dedicated student, you need to be one that is willing to put in the time that is willing to ask for help if you need the help, which, you know, Jack does.”

“Do it but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication like all the time, 24 hours a day, you’re constantly working, like that’s why this has been so great for me, I can travel when ever I needed to and do my school work before or after I go to the studio.”

He even found time to go to senior prom.