by Micah Seong
Nathanael is an alumnus from AP Homeschoolers who graduated from college in 2022. He and his wife actually met each other through AP Homeschoolers. I wanted to interview him about his experiences with the organization. Taking the stereotypes of homeschoolers as “secluded” into consideration, I wanted to especially focus on the social aspect of AP Homeschoolers and how he made friendships over the classes and the AP party.
Here is a transcript from our conversation on July 31st, 2026:
Question 1: First off, how did you get involved with AP Homeschoolers?
Answer: Same way I think most people do: my family. My oldest sister took APUSH with Mrs. Richman in 2010. The way we heard about it, though, was because the Richmans live in Kittanning PA, close to where we lived in Western PA. As they were very active, we found them through our evaluators. My eldest sister may have even once written for the PAH newspaper. All three of my older sisters took classes (in AP Homeschoolers). For my wife, pretty much the same deal. Her cousins took classes with AP Homeschoolers, and her family followed them.
Question 2: What were your favorite classes that you took with APH?
Answer: Without a doubt, it was AP Psychology with Mrs. Gonzales. I liked her course so much, I was one of her class TAs for two years - my junior and senior years of high school. My interest in psychology has grown with time as a consequence. For the last couple years now, I’ve been reading a lot of literature regarding behavioral addiction, social psychology, and environmental psychology with a recent focus on Richard Nesbitt and his books. I distinctly remember discussing his research in Mrs. G’s class! It’s definitely the one that’s stuck with me for the longest.
AP English Language with Mrs. Inspektor prepared me the most for college. It was probably the most rigorous liberal arts class I took in high school. Maybe even in college. While that may just be a disappointing commentary on my college classes, I think it is more a testament to Mrs. Inspektor’s high standards and care she demonstrates for her student’s progress.
AP Statistics was useful in terms of my college degrees. I got my major in Applied Data Science and a minor in economics both of which statistics are used a lot.
Question 3: So I have heard that you used to go to Mrs. Richman’s AP Parties, as well as that you and your wife actually met each other there. When did you start going to the parties and what is your favorite part about them?
Answer: I actually only went once. I was a big soccer player in high school, so usually that weekend there would be a soccer tournament that I would go to. So it would’ve been my junior year. I had actually been to the Richman residence for an AP Party when my older sister went.
Obviously, the default best part of them is that you get to meet people you’ve been communicating with online. Definitely another fun aspect of that is the dancing. My wife - who is also an APH alum - and I maintain a love of swing dancing. When we’ll go to weddings, I’ll ask the DJ to play some swing music and my wife and I use the moves we learned at the party.
So, my wife and I took US History together. That is where we met. The funniest side of the story is that I applied late to Mrs. R’s class when I was a rising freshman. Mrs. Richman usually doesn’t take freshmen (particularly those who apply late), so I ended up taking a class with Mr. Burns, and that’s where I met my wife. My wife went to the AP Party that year and she stopped by my parents’ house to say hi because we were in a study group all year.
Question 4: As a former homeschooler, I suppose that you have heard of the common stereotype that homeschoolers are cut off from the outside world and their peers. How would you say the AP Party impacted and continues to impact you in terms of your connections and social life?
Answer: There are a couple ways I could answer that question. I’ll just preface by saying that the AP Party didn’t necessarily impact that.
However, AP Homeschoolers and participating in the classes certainly made me a more open person, open in terms of the big 5 personality traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
Exploration and curiosity, AP Homeschoolers really taught me about that because you’re talking to a lot of different people and seeing a lot of new opinions. The classes are set up in such a way as to encourage exploration that fostered an open personality.
In terms of the social aspect, it makes you a more easygoing person - in layman’s terminology. It’s easier to adapt and to “roll with the punches.” It’s really the opposite of how social media encourages people to interact with each other. That is by nature restrictive. It doesn’t matter whether you’re public schooled or homeschooled if you’re on your screen all the time. In AP Homeschoolers, you are going to be doing your school online, but in a very engaging form that does not encourage an “echo chamber”.
The AP Party is really an opportunity to see the people you’ve been talking to all year. Some of these friends are those with whom you’ve shared deep and vulnerable conversations. It’s a very interesting experience, for sure, as you haven’t seen these people all year but you’ve been studying with them. There’s a lot of kinship there.
Question 5: Do you have any words of encouragement for all the students enrolled in APH about to start another year of AP classes?
Answer: Going back to what I said about AP Language, the coursework really does prepare you for some college classes. Keep your head down. Do the coursework, and that’ll prepare you for college. Don’t lose sight of the whole point of education, which is learning how to think and learning how to work.
Question 6: Since we’re all from a homeschooled background, my final question almost has to be this: what are your favorite books?
Well, I’m a homeschooler, so I have to say Tolkien; I’m a big Tolkien nerd.
I grew up in a household full of girls, so I’ve found a lot of male camaraderie in the Lord of the Rings. When I graduated I had read The Hobbit sixteen times, the Lord of the Rings four times, and The Silmarillian once. I really like pretty much anything written by Tolkien. I would also recommend the lesser known works of Tolkien. Farmer Giles of Ham, for example, is a hilarious novella. There’s also an essay he wrote called “On Fairy Stories” which is likely the best apology for fantasy literature. Leaf by Niggle, if you’re familiar with C. S. Lewis and The Great Divorce, it’s like Tolkien's version of The Great Divorce which in turn is like Dante’s Divine Comedy.
So that’s Tolkien.
In terms of openness, one of the books I read sophomore year of high school was a Jonathan Heights book, The Righteous Mind. This book really formed my thinking about politics in general. It certainly made me a much more charitable and open person.
As a recommendation for time management (something necessary for any student), there’s a book by a woman, Dr. Nicole Roccas, Time and Despondency, subtitled Regaining the Present in Faith and Life. It’s a discussion about a spiritual topic known as acedia which, in laymen’s terms, is the emotional state you feel when you’ve been doomscrolling on social media. The book addresses that topic at length which is really valuable if you’re spending a lot of time online.
Extra snippets
Today is the four-year anniversary of our marriage. We were married in 2022, my last year of college. I asked her out in the COVID years, so it would’ve been the AP party of 2020. We did our own thing in Virginia that year with other APH friends, and I asked her out there. Two years to the day is when we got married.
There’s definitely a fortuitous aspect of our marriage from being denied entry to Mrs. Richman’s class and getting married exactly two years from the time I asked her out, and then this interview exactly four years from our marriage.