Round 1 of voting is now live for HSNation.com's Spring 2012 homeschool college scholarship. This scholarship is to help a homeschooled high school student attend college wherever they want. We selected the first 16 finalists but the rest is up to you. Vote for your favorite homeschoolers now at http://www.hsnation.com/voting_ballot.php.

Reminder: HSNation's $1,000 college scholarship deadline is next week, April 13. Any currently homeschooled student is eligible to enter. Please sign up for HSNation.com and be sure to fill out your profile. For more information, please visit http://www.hsnation.com/scholarships.php.

Joshua Kling, a former homeschooled student, and Brayan Munoz have won Westminster College's Take a Friend Home (TAFH) competition. This program provides funds for a US and non-US student to visit each other's homes over a vacation or holiday. Joshua and Brayan will first visit Costa Rica, Brayan's home country, then Fulton, Missouri, where Joshua's family lives. According to the school, Westminster pays round trip airfare for the international flight for each pair of students. Upon their return, students share their experiences with the Westminster community.

Westminster's TAFH program is part of the college's strategy to create more global outreach and cultural immersion through the Center for Engaging the World at Westminster College.

For more information on this program, please visit http://www.thechurchillinstitute.org/engagingtheworld/archive2011/Pages/TakeAFriendHome.aspx.

HSNATION.com - College Search for Homeschoolers
SCHOLARSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT
Entry date: April 13, 2012

HSNATION.com was created to help homeschool students find scholarship money and the right college or university.

Our mission is to provide all the information you will need to find and attend the right college for you. We have partnered with colleges across the country that are dedicated to finding and recruiting homeschoolers just like you!

HSNATION will award a $1,000 scholarship on May 30th, 2012 to a homeschooled high school student.

Students will be selected based upon their personal statement their profile on the HSNATION.com website.

Entries must be completed by Friday, April 13, 2012 to qualify.

All interested homeschooled high school students are encouraged to apply for this scholarship. All you need is a completed profile and to tell us why you deserve it!

GO TO www.hsnation.com to LOGIN and create a PROFILE today!

We are seeing repeatedly that many people outside the homsechooling community don't yet fully understood why some families choose this path to education. In our family, homeschooling has meant a huge amount of freedom and compassion in creating an academic program that works for everyone. And, besides paying taxes, we save the public school system money! But like Charter Schools, homeschooling seems to raise the public's ire by suggesting that public schools don't provide a satisfactory alternative. Funny, private schools don't seem to create these same kind of challenge, but homeschooling sure does.

Rather than lament this situation, we at HSNation.com are wondering what can be done to improve the situation. Do we need more professional athletes like Tim Tebow, or a fancy PR campaign? Should homeschoolers seek corporate sponsors for their scholarly or extracurricular activities?

What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment on the message board.

The college-bound homeschool community saw some highs and lows this week. The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, TN reports that the State Senate Education Committee is considering key changes in the way that the Hope Scholarship program administered by the state awards college scholarships. According to the Commercial Appeal, homeschoolers would have slightly easier requirements than public or private school students - but only because of a recent amendment in the laws. At first the bar for a minimum ACT score was set higher for homeschoolers, presumably to compensate for their not having an "official" GPA. Homeschoolers made their voices heard however and now the minimum ACT test is now the same for public and private school students. These changes are not yet law but speak to how the Tennessee state legislature is working to understand how to evaluate and merit homeschoolers alongside public and private school students. This process is likely to further legitimize homeschooling as a choice in the state.

On the low side, the Virginia Senate's education and health committee defeated a bill that had passed the state's House of Delegates to allow homeschoolers to play sports at public schools. The vote was narrow - 8 against and 7 for. According to the New York Times, supporters of the bill thought that families paying taxes in a community should have the right to send their kids to play publicly funded sports. Opponents said that sports were a priviledge that a family lost when deciding to homeschool. If the bill had passed, Virginia would have been on the way to joining the 25 other US states that allow homeschooled students to play sports at public schools. As sports involvement is one of the criteria that colleges may use to evaluate perspective students, Virginia's decision means that homeschoolers have to look elsewhere for these opportunities.

Meanwhile, talented athletes may no longer be dependent on schools for their sports. The United States Soccer Federation is now not only asking but requiring students to play for their teams year-round. While the Federation says that this helps develop skilled players, it also takes kids out of public and private school teams. 

The lines between public school, private school and homeschool clearly needs redefining. We hope that more state legislatures are up to the task.

LeTourneau University will hold a homschool symposium this summer at their campus in Longview, Texas!

Take the opportunity this summer to prepare for college with students like you – at a university where home schoolers are a major part of the campus community. Join us July 15-18, 2012 at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, to learn what it takes to conquer university life, spend time in worship, check out campus and hang out with other home schooled students heading to college.

For more information visit LETU's website for the symposium, http://letu.edu/_Admissions/HomeSchoolSymposium

How the Lord has really been teaching me that recently!  The Lord has alway provided for me, but I still worry, and worry, and worry about EVERYTHING.  From work, to college, to scholarships....just about anything that it is possible to stress out over, I'm stressing out over it!  I keep praying about it, asking the Lord to help me trust in Him, and leave it up to Him to provide for me, but it's not easy.  Finally, last Sunday, during the sermon, I had one of those moments where I realized that I needed to let go and stop worrying.  It struck me that God has done so much for me, and answered so many prayers.  It was He who brought me the opportunity to get my private pilot's licence which set me on the track of getting a degree in aviation.  It was only because of Him, that I passed my medical exam, got my student pilot's license, and got accepted to two colleges.  If aviation is where He wants me to be, He will provide the finances neccessary.  As my friend Kate reminded me, He will never leave me hanging; if He has brought me this far, He will not leave me here.  And more than that, I realized that if God doesn't want me to continue in aviation, He will show me where He wants me, and that I need to have a heart of gratitude and trust towards Him no matter what happens.  What if I can't attend college this fall because I didn't get enough scholarships?  He will open other doors for me.  I must trust Him to do what is best for me.  And isn't that a wonderful truth?  He will do what is BEST for me!!!  He has promised in the Bible that whatever He does, it is for my good even when I don't see it that way.  And what God promises, he will  carry through!  God has something waiting for me, and He has promised it will be for my good!  Praise the Lord!  God, give me the faith I need to trust you in all circumstances, no matter what happens.

A new project from the White House will help homeschoolers think about the financial value of college and what it can mean to them down the road. The new tool, called the College Scorecard, is meant to present current college costs, time to graduation and the likelihood of getting a job after graduation. The idea is to get beyond SAT scores and admissions selections in order for college applicants to understood why they should go to a particular university and what the costs and benefits will be down the road.

Looking past the current metrics of a college's desireability (think US News and World Report rankings) gets to the heart of why someone would want to go to college in the first place. Is it to expand your mind? Get a better paying job? Make friends? Figuring out what college means to each person is an important starting point in the selection process, regardless of what the final choice is. The more that each person can understand what they want out of the experience, the more likely they are to find what they really want.

While the new White House metrics won't be everything to everyone, they do help to bring a broader set of criteria into the college selection process. To see a sample of the new College Scorecard visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/college-value-profile.pdf

The national media reported today that the State of Virginia's House of Delegates has passed a law removing a state-wide prohibition against homeschooled athletes playing sports at public schools. The law has some strong supporters and opponents, crossing both homeschool associations, Republicans and Democrats. The next step is for the bill to go to the Virginia Senate then to the Governor for final approval. However you look at it though, the decision is another example of the mainstream acceptance of homeschooling in education today.

25 states now allow homeschoolers to play in public school sports and the number seems like to grow: Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee are all considering the options. A state allowing homeschoolers to play on public sports teams does not mean that every public school district will do the same, but it does take away a total restriction on homeschooler involvement. Each school district can then make its own rules on how homeschoolers can get involved.

Many state laws have come to be known as "Tim Tebow bills," after the homeschooled Denver Broncos quarterback who also played football in his local public high school.

It seems that state lawmakers have gotten the message: homeschooling is a very legitimate choice for education, and that does not exclude playing sports in the communities where homeschoolers live.