Meet Rebecca Prince
Being the oldest child, Rebecca was “on the front end of homeschooling experimentation” for her parents, who began home educating her when she was five years old. Like her parents, CHEA members Roger & Helen Prince, she has been actively involved in SCOPE, a CHEA Support Network group in the greater Sacramento area, for the last four years.
Rebecca plans to attend Calvin University in Michigan to pursue dual degrees in Chemistry and French.
Congratulations Rebecca!
I am very honored to be the recipient of the Susan K. Beatty scholarship this year. Is it especially meaningful to me, as I have been privately homeschooled for my whole life. My family and I have valued the support of CHEA in our homeschooling journey. It was actually the CHEA Intro to Homeschooling sessions at the San Jose convention back in 2009 that inspired my family to start homeschooling.
Homeschooling is the thing that has most prepared me for my future. It is because of this I have been blessed by the freedom to discover all of my diverse interests. It has aided me in growing my faith in God and it has been instrumental in finding out what I want to do.
Languages have always been a passion for me, but I have also been drawn to the sciences, chemistry in particular. As a child I loved to create secret languages with my friends when we went on nature walks with my homeschool group and that soon solidified into a love for foreign languages and linguistics. This led to my first decision, taking French as a major in university.
When I did my first science experiments with my mom, our kitchen ingredients, and my first lab notebook spread out before me, I found an interest that has not waned. These wonder-filled moments that I was able to spend with my mom became the foundation on which I began to build my love of science. It is on that foundation that I have decided to do a second major; this one in chemistry.
As I learned more about both French and chemistry, I began to see similar occurring themes. They both had constants and variables. They both had small elements, which when combined, made new and exciting end results. They are both deep subjects with mysteries just waiting to be discovered. I think it was my homeschooling background that helped me to make that connection. In homeschooling, subjects tend to blur boundaries. My parents certainly like to explain one thing with the aid of another. This helped me to see where my two interests intersected. It also helped me to see how my brain works, and how to use that to my advantage.
Because I was homeschooled, I was not limited to just one area of study. This significantly helped me with my faith in God. I love being able to see His creative genius in the smallest building blocks of our world and in the ways in which He gave us to communicate with each other. In public schools, science and Christianity are kept strictly separate, so it was to my great advantage to be homeschooled. Not only were most of my classes taught from a Christian worldview, being homeschooled helped solidify my faith enough that when I did take a class that was not rooted in a biblical worldview, my faith was not shaken. I ardently feel that this has been the most incredible gift that my parents have given to me.
Both Proverbs 16:2, “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” and Colossians 3:13, “as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” are verses that I try to exemplify in my daily life. Because I want to be an accurate reflection of my heavenly Father to the world around me, I try to always follow the example of Jesus, making an effort to show kindness to those around me and to be considerate of their needs.
Living in the Sierras has given me an amazing chance to explore God’s beautiful outdoors for PE. Homeschooling gives me the flexible schedule I need to be able to traverse the mountains by skiing in the winter and paddle the lakes by kayak during the summer. As well as outdoor sports, my self-directed schedule also gave me the opportunity to pursue extra curricular activities. I was able to dedicate many hours toward earning my pilot’s license and learning to dance en pointe in ballet. I also had the opportunity to take some interesting classes relating to culinary arts and the world of fashion.
The homeschooling environment has fostered my love of reading. When not skiing, kayaking, or dancing, I can most often be found with my nose in a book, devouring my latest library pick. Fiction, nonfiction, fantasy, science fiction; I love all of it! My all time favorite author is JRR Tolkien; I could happily read his many books for hours on end. I love his style and prose. For me, it was infinitely inspiring to learn that he built his world around a language that he invented.
My family and I have always been heavily involved in our local homeschool group as well as volunteering with organizations such as Family Protection Ministries, a California organization defending our homeschooling freedoms in the legislative arena. We also enjoy attending events like Capitol Day, where we meet with senators and assembly members so we can put a face to the private homeschooling population. As well as it being important to stand up for our homeschooling rights, these events are always fun, and it has been wonderful to meet new homeschoolers and make more friends.
Being a homeschooled student has afforded me the opportunity to develop my character and my faith through school, sports, and leisure time. My faith gives me the confidence that I have been well equipped for what God has planned for me in my next stage of life.
For the next four years, my education will be based in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Calvin University. I am excited to continue learning in an environment where my faith will be nurtured and developed alongside my courses of study. In addition, as a small Christian liberal arts school, they approach learning with the same integrated approach I have been so blessed to have to date.
I am honored to accept this scholarship and the support of CHEA as I look forward to stepping out on this new journey in the fall.
Each year, CHEA’s Support Network provides the Susan K. Beatty Scholarship, named in honor of CHEA’s founder, in the amount of $1,000, to a CHEA Member who is also a member of a CHEA Support Network Group and a graduating senior. Deadline for application is February 28 of each year.