CollegePlus! Acceleration Newsletter

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Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:56:00 CDT

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CollegePlus! Grad Suceeds in Law School and Corporate America

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:56:00 CDT

by Melody Dornink

John Shea graduated from college with high honors, accepted a job at a major company in New York, earning $60,000 a year, was offered admission to numerous prestigious law schools, and full-ride scholarships from several – all by the age of 17. CollegePlus! provides opportunity for students to exceed cultural expectations for young people by equipping them with tools that are essential for college success, but, more importantly, for success in life. Shea, a former CollegePlus! student, is a remarkable example of a young man who has defied cultural “norms” and achieved tremendous accomplishments as a result.

Wall Street Journal At Age 7?

John Shea did not start out exceptional. “When I was four or five, I was a very inattentive, chaotic student,” he admits. He had problems reading and hated to write. His mother began home schooling him in first grade, and she invested hours in teaching him to read. Surprisingly, Shea found he loved to read. In fact, he began reading the Wall Street Journal every day, as a seven-year-old. By the age of 12, he was reading War and Peace. He participated in an online literature class with high school and college students worldwide through Angelicum Academy, and was retroactively granted college credits for his work. At the age of 15, he had already earned 18 college credits.

Enter CollegePlus!

Shea’s mother attended a home school conference, heard a presentation of CollegePlus! and convinced him to consider it. “I like to get the most value for my effort,” Shea said. “When I heard I could be knocking off years of college for the same amount of work I was already doing, I got pretty excited.” As a 15-year-old, he jumped into CLEP-testing. “It was great! The flexibility was wonderful. I earned 60 credits' worth of CLEPs in six months.” When the time came for Shea to transfer his credits to Thomas Edison State College, he was surprised that they accepted all 80+ credits. “By that time, I had developed a very focused, very efficient method of studying. I could study a subject for a day or two, and have a good grasp of the material.” Speed-reading and the memory techniques he had learned in the early stages of CollegePlus! served to give him exceptional advantages in studying for his TESC courses. Shea graduated in the spring of 2007, as a 17-year-old bachelor’s holder. He received the Arnold Fletcher award for “exceptional achievement in independent learning,” along with a 4.0 GPA.

As he assessed his future options, Shea said he realized that “I really had a passion for debate, I liked to read, I enjoyed public speaking and working with people.” This combination caused him to consider law as the path God had chosen for him. His next step was taking the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). He received an excellent score, in the 98th percentile. However, he chose not to jump into more school right away.

Success in the Workplace

Instead, he began looking for valuable work experience. The opportunity to work in Manhattan at Thomson Reuters Markets presented itself, and he interviewed for the position. “All the interviewer wanted to see was that I had a bachelor’s. He cared more about my smile, my work ethic, and that I was trustworthy, than which institute I graduated from.” He was offered a job at Thomson Reuters making $60,000 a year. “As a 17-year-old kid, that was pretty exciting!” Shea knew very little about accounting, but he was now a balance sheet analyst. He worked hard – implementing speed-reading and memory techniques – to learn “fairly intense revenue accounting, in about a month’s time.” Shea excelled in his job, and used creative problem-solving ideas to save his company time and money. College graduates in their mid- to late-twenties interned for Thomson Reuters, and looked up to him because he had a job at their “dream company.” They attended Ivy League colleges, and most had graduated at the tops of their classes. “These were people who, by conventional wisdom, had achieved the highest education possible; yet, they were coming to me for advice … I didn’t have the heart to tell them I was only 17,” Shea said.

Law School

He chose to attend Ave Maria School of Law, on a full scholarship, “because of their focus on core values, Christian principles, and the Natural Law tradition … I felt that God was calling me to be His lawyer, not just any lawyer, and Ave Maria seemed like a perfect fit for that goal.” Shea has finished his first year of law school, 6th in his class of 124, and in two years, he’ll be graduating with his doctorate at the same time most students are just finishing their undergraduate degrees. For now, he is walking the path God has marked out for him, and is using his talents for God’s glory.

Think Outside the Box!

“Don’t be bound to the expectations of the culture,” Shea encourages, “Try not to compare yourself to other people your age; instead, compare yourself to those you want to be like.” Those who work hard, display strong character, and set themselves apart from a mediocre generation of young people are those who will excel in all that they do. John Shea is a perfect example of this, and his young life testifies to the faithfulness of God in the lives of those who dedicate themselves to Him.

Melody is a CollegePlus! English major and lives with her family in Minnesota. She is working on a Teaching English as a Second Language Certificate, hopes to travel overseas soon, and helps in construction and remodeling with her father.

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Are You Blinded by the Education System?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:28:00 CDT

By Kelly Negvesky

The American school system is flawed. John Taylor Gatto, a public school teacher for 30 years and winner of both the New York City Teacher of the Year award and the New York State Teacher of the Year, has been speaking and writing about the errors in today's school system and what can be done to change the way students are educated today. Explaining the nature of true education, Gatto says, “Education is almost totally engineered from the inside. You cannot take an education and no one can give you one. It is customized to the individual person.”

Creating Consumers

Instead of educating lifelong learners, today's system is creating “consumers” instead of “producers” and, according to one of Gatto's best selling books, educators are actually “Dumbing us Down.” Mr. Gatto says regarding the philosophy coming from the system, “they haven’t done a great job past tense - they are doing a great job. It’s a constant propaganda mill. They want to get individuals feeling uneasy about not turning their child over to total strangers in an institution that has a dismal track record.”

Assumptions

Conditioned by 200 years of mandatory public education parents feel there are no other options. How can I educate my child? So often parents' thoughts are, "I don’t have the capabilities, the teaching certificate, the proper environment, correct chalkboard, or desks", and in response to high school or college they feel inadequate to impart wisdom or knowledge they, as parents, do not have. “The whole public school institution is based on a delusion, an indefensible assumption that kids don’t want to learn, and they require a specialist, who is a stranger, to teach them.” Gatto believes, “it is just all nonsense.”

Are There Answers?

So what is the solution to sidestepping the current system? Is there hope to change education in America today? Gatto offers this lifeline, “Now we are down to nuts and bolts of engineering. This doesn’t have to be thought of from scratch. Fortunately, we have over 2,000 years of history where we have a very large number of successfully educated young people. Is there a pattern we can pick out of the success stories? YES!”

Gatto points to one of our nation’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, as an inspiration for change. He encourages a close look at how this man, one of 15 children and son of a candle maker, "In his spare time with his friends, put himself through an education I doubt Harvard, Yale or Princeton would dream of asking their undergraduates to undergo today.”

What's the Difference?

The differences between Franklin’s model and today’s schools are severe and according to Gatto they can be summarized into three words, “there are three key words to profound transformation in the quality of young people’s education and those are production, connections, and concentration.”

There are very few exceptions to production being a key concept in education. “Don’t undertake anything which you do not understand the product and then tie that teaching to learning to actually produce things.”

Get Connected

Each person comes into this world with associations, ties to the family they are born into. Connections are important in regards to obtaining an education. Gatto states, “Most successful people are connected with a whole lot of different sources and information. Schools disconnect you from everything real and reconnect you with a total stranger. Then if the young person tries to reconnect themselves to others during the school day they are punished and chastised.”

Sinking Ship

Gatto documented as many as one interruption in the classroom every 6 minutes, “and that is in a good classroom; in a bad one they can be non-stop.” Concentration is key to a superior mind, “No one can look through history at the great minds and not see that they were set apart in their ability to concentrate for long periods of time” said Gatto. “Now you put someone in that environment for 12 years and what happens to their ability to concentrate. It is regulated to a short sound bite. It is not conducive to achieving a great education”

The current system cannot be saved. Gatto claims, “If there are going to be any solutions it is going to come from the bottom up as in the case of the nearly three million homeschool students.”

Take Action

CollegePlus! is a bottom up answer to many of the current system's problems. Giving the student Life Purpose Planning helps ensure they are lifelong producers in society and earning a degree for which they were created. CollegePlus! offers the freedom to achieve students' educational goals while remaining connected to family and community, their key support system. Finally, CollegePlus! gives a clear approach to courses allowing great concentration on individual subjects with a coach alongside helping maintain that focus.

Find Out More

Mr. Gatto’s wisdom and expertise points many to new directions in education. You can learn more about the history of American education by downloading his book, “The Underground History of American Education” for free from his website: www.johntaylorgatto.com.

Kelly Negvesky lives in Orlando, loves her husband of 13 years and educates their 3 children at home. She recently graduated from CollegePlus! and earned her BA in Humanities from Thomas Edison State College.

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Why Distance Learning?

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:23:57 CDT

Distance learning costs less! Find out how you can cut your college costs by more than 50% through distance learning. The latest creation by CollegePlus!

A Teacher Learns the Truth About Education

Tue, 05 May 2009 15:44:17 CDT

by Lauren Bleser

In 2002, I graduated with my Master’s degree as a reading specialist after having finished a teaching degree from the State University of New York at Oneonta. I was fast on my way to a full and busy career in the public school system when I was caught off guard by a homeschooling parent who asked if I could explain God’s mind on education. I had never really considered that before, always taking it for granted that we simply go through the system, memorize the information required, and graduate. This challenging question led me on a quest that changed the course of my life.

Questioning the System

What is a real education? After studying it out, I have come to believe that education involves the whole child, not just the mind. It includes character growth, personal disciplines, and manners. Considering each child’s unique talents, interests, natural capacities, strengths and abilities, the end result of education is that they would become effective tools in God’s kingdom. Scripture offers clarity in this regard:

Deuteronomy 6:7 "And thou shalt teach them (God’s commandments) diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."

According to the Scriptures, education is primarily the parents’ responsibility and is to be a natural part of everyday life. Education is accomplished through a meaningful trusting relationship. Education is discipleship.

I realized that I had blindly accepted a limited view of education, simply associating it with an academic pursuit of knowledge. Academic instruction, however, is only a small part of God’s plan—a means to an end, not the end in itself.

The Frightening Truth

So where did these distorted ideas come from? Studying the history of compulsory public schooling in America confronted me with ideas that challenged my own “education.” I uncovered disturbing facts about schools, business, government, and politics. All of it related to what was happening in the public school system.

Surprisingly, the National Education Association understands that education cannot be neutral, that ideas do in fact have consequences. They were working hard to train educators to go beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic, but to shape children’s core values as well. The “experts” have been using schooling and teachers as cultural change agents. This quote from Joyce Elmer Morgan, former editor of the Journal of the National Education Association, encapsulates their agenda the best:

“In the struggle to establish an adequate world government, the teacher can do much to prepare the hearts and minds of children for global understanding and cooperation. At the very top of all the agencies which will assure the coming of world government must stand the school, the teacher, and the organized profession.”

For decades now, they have endeavored to strip away the belief in absolutes and biblical morals and usher generations of students into a relativistic secular society. “Values Clarification” has become required as part of the regular state standards. Children were increasingly being expected to use newly taught problem-solving techniques to make moral decisions based on situational ethics and group consensus.

SAT tests, Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind have introduced specific subjective / feelings-based / moral educational requirements and subsequent consequences for not meeting those standards, using new programs with labels like “Outcomes Based Education.” These alleged reforms have given them power to effectively implement new physiological approaches to their moral instruction. Even sincere public school teachers have unwittingly acted as pawns to destructively mold the next generation.

Taking Action

Knowing that I myself could not make such compromises, I decided to teach at a Christian school instead. Although I greatly appreciated being allowed to teach freely from the Bible, and even having a smaller group of students and increased parental support, the classroom setting still proved to be less than ideal for the children, both academically and spiritually.

Additionally, the emphasis on grades has changed the basis of their self-affirmation from internal character to external performance. This naturally led to comparisons and labeling among one another. In order to establish better rank in the pecking order that schools naturally created, many students at my school began to exhibit foolish behavior for attention.

They adapted their personalities to fit into cliques; they grew more peer dependent, and learned to compromise character to increase their popularity, gain approval, and obtain a false sense of importance. All of this distracted them from the very essence of real education – the development of their minds and characters.

Stepping Outside the Box

The classroom setting works directly against God’s design for a child’s personal growth. Effective education involves more than just providing the content, but also providing a healthy context for learning. Education is not a one-size-fits-all package, but must be tailored to the student’s unique multi-faceted nature, reaching beyond the intellect to the heart.

This is best accomplished in the security of family, in response to the parents’ nurturing investment and discipline, and without all the distractions of peers. Only when character and discipline are established is it safe to expand the walls of education.

Lauren Bleser is from upstate New York. She has her BS in Elementary Education with a minor in Special Education, and a MS as a reading specialist. She is currently a medical transcriptionist, and also a part-time private tutor for homeschool families. Lauren teaches creative writing workshops for both children and homeschool parents, along with workshops about teaching techniques for the struggling learner. Lauren is currently working on a literature-based creative writing curriculum.

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One Prosperous Entrepreneur

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:21:00 CDT

CollegePlus! Student Succeeds in Her Own Business.

by Melody Dornink

Becoming an entrepreneur is what many people dream about, but never have the opportunity to actually live out. It takes a lot of hard work, perseverance, and creativity. One CollegePlus! student has found her niche in the entrepreneurial world, and believes that she is following God’s will by doing so.

Abigail Vander Hamm owns and operates her own photography business. She started three years ago, after taking several workshops from a Christian-based photography school, the Institute of Photographic Studies.

Work Your Passion In Life

Vander Hamm said photography has always been a passion, “I started as an 8-year-old with a little blue plastic camera,” and her interest in the field has only increased with years. “I feel that God has given me a love for people and art, so photography is the perfect mix.”

"When I was 18, I was confronted with the ‘what am I going to do with my life?’ question and I really just had to look back at my track record with God,” she said. “I just tried to piece together the talents that He has given me and the desires of my heart and realize that He had been preparing me for this plan my whole life.”

Where to Begin

Vander Hamm launched her business by doing work for friends first, and “giving substantial discounts so that people would not mind trusting an 18-year-old photographer,” she said.

“Once my reputation had been established, and I had gained more experience, I found that word-of-mouth recommendations, blogging, and using networking sites like Facebook and Xanga were my main sources of business.”

How to Keep Your Business Growing

Owning a business is “a lot of work—you have to be responsible and keep yourself on track,” Vander Hamm said. But it also has numerous advantages, in her opinion. “I can still live life. I’m not tied down. I can travel, I can spend time with my family, I can engage in ministry opportunities – it’s extremely flexible.”

Vander Hamm is working toward her BA in Humanities through CollegePlus! and started the program in May 2008. She plans to graduate the end of April 2009, completing four years of college in just one year.

Despite all the college studies she has had to do, Vander Hamm still had time this last year to photograph 10 weddings, travel all over the United States and even to Europe—twice—teach multiple week-long workshops for the Institute of Photographic Studies, and spend time with her family. All this, and she will still need to spend more time studying each week than the average college student in the US these days. To finish in the time frame she's set, Vander Hamm will have to put in around four hours of study each day.

Thinking About the Future

“I plan on sticking with wedding photography for as long as I can,” said Vander Hamm. “I see marriage and children on the horizon, but one thing about this owning my own business thing that I absolutely love is the fact that I’ll be able to work a couple of days a month–and a few evenings–and still be able to stay at home with my kids.”

Vander Hamm’s advice to other potential entrepreneurs is, “Be willing to work for less than you’d like until you’ve established credibility,” she said. “Try to live out those ‘good ol’ fruits of the Spirit’–patience, self-control, peace–and work hard! Be excellent in all that you do.”

Melody is a CollegePlus! English major and lives with her family in Minnesota. She works at a law office and writes for a local newspaper.

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