Bee All You Can Bee

Last year was a  great year for homeschoolers in academic competitions!

Vocabulary Whiz

First, on March 5, part-time homeschoooler Robert Marsland swept the field to win the first-ever GSN National Vocabulary Championship. This garnered him $40,000 towards his college education. (A one-hour special featuring highlights of the competition was aired later in the year, on April 15.)

Although the competition site lists Robert’s school as "St. Ambrose Academy," this is only part of the story. Robert was homeschooling through the eighth grade, and continued taking Scholars Online courses in Greek, Latin, and Literature after that.


Super Scientist

On May 18, 16-year-old homeschooler Philip Streich won a $50,000 scholarship as one of the "best of the best" in this year’s Intel International Science & Engineering Fair (the Intel ISEF), garnering one of the three Intel Foundation Young Scientist awards.

Philip did this with his amazing word demonistrating that carbon nanotubes are thermodynamically stable. To prove his point, he invented and built his own lab equipment, which measures scattered photons better than the equipment sold to labs!


Female Geo Bee Star

On May 23, 14-year-old homeschooler Caitlin Snaring became the first girl in 17 years to win the National Geographic Bee. Amazingly, it was her first shot at the competition. Read more about it (and see a photo of Caitlin) here:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3204969&page=1

Spelling Bee Champion

Finally, on May 31, 13-year-old homeschooler Evan O’Dorney was the fourth homeschooler (since 1997) to take home the coveted Scripps National Spelling Bee trophy. It comes with $35,000 cash, a $5,000 college scholarship, a $2,500 savings bond, and assorted goodies. Evan is pretty good at another school subject, too. Check out this story:
http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/S/SPELLING_BEE?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME