2023 CHAP Memorial Scholarship Given for First Place

How Homeschooling Has Changed My Life

By Jonathan Rathman, First Place Winner, Leigh A. Genasevich Scholarship

I’ve been homeschooled my entire life, and while I often find myself wondering what might have happened if my parents sent me to a public school, I’m ultimately very glad that they made the decision to homeschool me. Being homeschooled has given me many exciting opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise, while also helping me to grow deeper in my faith, closer to my family, and academically.

The first and most significant benefit of homeschooling that I’ve observed in my own life is that it has helped me to grow stronger in my faith. I accepted Christ at a very young age thanks to my parents teaching me about the Gospel and working to instill Christian morals in me from the moment I was old enough to understand. Being homeschooled has helped me to grow stronger in my faith because I’ve had much more time to delve deeply into God’s word and strive to understand it as best I can through prayer and meditation.

By learning mostly on my own and using a Biblically-centered curriculum, I’ve also been able to more strongly develop my own beliefs and moral convictions, as opposed to being told what to believe and being peer-pressured into thinking a certain way. This has helped me to point others to the Lord because many non-Christians I encounter seem to notice that my faith has caused me to behave differently than most of my peers.

All of this has helped me feel much more prepared to share my faith with others. This past year, I was able to lead a Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddle for the Cocalico High School wrestling team. In each of our meetings we would come together and watch video lessons explaining the Gospel message, discuss what we learned, and spend time in prayer. These meetings were an amazing opportunity for me to share my faith with my teammates, many of whom had probably never heard the complete Gospel message before. Leading these huddles also helped strengthen my faith because it was absolutely incredible seeing God use me to make a difference in others’ lives.

Another huge benefit of homeschooling that I’ve observed in my life is that I’ve had more time to spend with my family and grow closer to them. Thanks to the flexibility of my school schedule, my family and I have been able to go on many field trips around Pennsylvania and the surrounding states. Over the course of several years, we’ve journeyed to multiple national parks, historical sites, and more. These trips have been great bonding experiences, while also being a fun way to learn more about the state and country we live in.

By being homeschooled, I’ve also had much more time to invest in my favorite sport, wrestling. Aside from simply being fun, wrestling has also helped strengthen me both physically and mentally while, more importantly, forging strong bonds with other people. My father and I were able to bond over our mutual love for the sport, and we spent a lot of time together traveling to different wrestling clubs and competitions. Through wrestling, I also built strong friendships with many of my teammates and coaches. It was awesome growing closer to them and watching my circle of friends grow, which also gave me more opportunities to share my faith.

Homeschooling also made learning more fun and interesting because I was able to use a variety of formats for my different courses. A portion of my courses were entirely online, with some more reading-based and others more reliant on videos. For another portion of my courses, I learned through a physical textbook, and for others I attended a homeschool co-op.

I attended this co-op for several years, and it was a great way to meet fellow homeschoolers who were passionate about sharing God’s love with others. Through attending co-op, I was also able to get a taste of what going to a public school would have been like. Even though we only met once a week, the classes were set up much like what would be expected at an average public or private school, so this was yet another fun way I was able to learn new things.

One final way being homeschooled has changed my life is that it has given me much more time to prepare for college. This past year I was able to study for and pass several CLEP exams to earn college credit, and I also had time to take multiple courses regarding computer networking and software development, which are topics I find very exciting to learn about and are relevant to my chosen field of study in college.

Upon graduating high school, I plan to attend Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology to pursue a degree in Computer Software Engineering. I’ve heard nothing but praise for Thaddeus Stevens, and it’s also very affordable. Additionally, it’s close enough to my home that I could commute, which was something that was very important in my college search. All this together made Thaddeus Stevens my top choice college, and I applied and was accepted after a bit of thought and prayer.

For choosing my major, I was immediately drawn to computer software engineering because I’ve always been particularly interested in computers, software, and the internet. To me, a chance to learn much more about these things while also gaining the necessary skills to secure a job in one of the fastest-growing, most in-demand technical fields out there, is quite an exciting prospect. This, coupled with the fact that I’ve always wanted a job that allows me to work from home, made choosing my major relatively easy.

After finishing college, I also plan to come back to Cocalico to coach wrestling. Not only would this be a great way to give back to the sport I had so much fun with and had great success in, it would more importantly be a great way to positively influence young athletes.

Being homeschooled has changed my life in a multitude of different ways. It changed not only my education but also my faith, my relationships with other people, and more. I am so thankful to God that He has given me the opportunities that He did, and I hope and pray that He will continue to give me opportunities to grow as a person and to share the good news of the Gospel with others.