Not only are homeschoolers incredibly fun, intelligent, and social individuals (half kidding on that last one), we are also very accomplished. Here, we will take a look at a few of the notable achievements and activities of our AP Homeschoolers community.
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Aubrey Han: I do something called the Congressional Award, in which a participant can earn hours in four different categories: personal development, physical fitness, voluntary public service, and exploration and expedition. Award levels include Bronze, Silver, and Gold Certificates and then Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medals. Medal levels can be presented by the participant's Congressional Representative. I just heard from the Congressional Award that I've been approved for the Bronze Medal level, which I'm super excited about! I needed 50 hours in personal development and physical fitness, 100 hours in voluntary public service, and 6 activities in a virtual exploration. I've been working on this level for about two years, so I'm excited that I've finally achieved it! I'm hoping to earn the Gold Medal by my senior year of high school.
Christian Bach: At the end of last school year, I competed in a national speech and debate tournament with hundreds of competitors from across the United States. In the Lincoln Douglas Speaking category, in which there were nearly 200 nationally qualified debaters, I placed first!
Olivia Tummescheit: I started a Substack where I write about literature, history, education, worldview, and other topics: https://livquicksilver.substack.com/ or Substack: Liv Quicksilver. My Substack has received a total of 1.33K views in total over the past 90 days. One particularly fun project involved asking fellow PAH students for common Homeschool FAQs and then answering them in a series of posts!
Eva Rotberg: Well, I won the Jane Austen Society of North America Essay Contest! The submission was part of Mrs. Inspektor's AP Lit class; we read Pride and Prejudice and wrote a paper in response to the contest prompt. Then, about 6 months later, I got an email announcing that I won first place! It was an absolutely amazing trip and I am so thrilled and grateful to everyone who helped me with my paper along the way and encouraged me to submit; I would never have done it otherwise. Now, I have a subscription to the JASNA scholarly journal and get to attend their annual meeting!
Janoah Vandever: Recently, I had the blessing of traveling to the United Kingdom, visiting both England and Scotland. We took my Grandma on this trip because she (and therefore we) have Scottish heritage. While in London, my family watched a couple musicals playing on the West End, such as Hercules and Wicked. We also saw Covent Gardens, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, and so much more. In Scotland, we walked around Glass (the town my Grandma’s grandparents grew up in), rode a boat on Loch Ness (we didn’t see Nessie, though), toured Edinburgh Castle, and attended the Highland Games in Inverness. Throughout our trip, we were constantly learning more and more about Scottish culture and history. Overall, this whole trip was super fun and was definitely a learning experience, as well as being a wonderful way to bring our family closer together.
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We couldn’t be more impressed by these submissions, and I hope they inspire everyone to keep working hard on their goals! Please submit your own recent accomplishments to be printed in the next issue!
Submissions for this article were curated by Hope Hesselink. A homeschooler in Maryland her entire life, Hope is an avid reader, loves politics and philosophy, and is proud to be a Scout, black belt in karate, and guitarist.