Priscilla is Accepted to the College of Her Choice!

The latest reason to celebrate around here is that Priscilla has just received the news that she has been accepted into the college of her choice! The next hurdle is scholarships, grants, financial aid sorts of things...and then maybe we will have our first child in college this coming fall. Today she is submitting her bid for the Emerging Artist scholarship, which would greatly help towards the costs.

She went to visit the college a couple of weeks ago and stayed overnight in the dorms. The next day she wanted me to come up and go to the meetings and selected classes with her. I was glad she wanted me to come, but I always hate being away from home during the day. I guess it's that idea of trying to balance mothering the older and younger kids at the same time. This time I put priority on Priscilla's needs and, boy, was I in for a treat.

I arrived in time for a meeting with the Financial Aid representative, toured with someone from admissions and had lunch with the lady who was in charge of admissions (and the food was actually good!). After lunch we went to some of the classes. I was so impressed and excited. It made me want to go!

First we went to a drawing class. They had a live model come in for a portrait drawing and Pris joined right in. Luckily, I had brought my nature journal with me so she used a page out of that. I thought I would need something to do so I brought a few things with me in my book bag. (It ended up that I was fascinated to just watch everything going on around me and didn't need anything to do. ) I enjoyed watching the art professor interact with the students as she went around the room giving tips and encouragement.

Next we went to a class called something like 'Outreach to Contemporary Culture'. The professor immediately introduced himself to us and apologized for not having a regular class that day. Instead, there would be a guest professor lecturing on a series of children's books. Had I heard of Phillip Pullman and his trilogy of books, the first being The Golden Compass? Had I! I just happened to have that in my book bag too because I was planning on reading that while Priscilla was in these "boring" (ha ha) classes. I was so excited and settled in to hear what they had to say about this author. It was a great class. The professor gave a brief biography on the author and then put up quotes from various interviews on the overhead projector. She then lead discussion on analyzing his worldview and had them compare and contrast it with Christianity. It was so interesting. I had to practically put a clamp on my mouth in order to not participate, since after all, I was just a visitor and a mother! The professor recommended all of the students read the book and see the film in order to engage in discussion with others. This is exactly what I had planned to do. I wanted to read the controversial books for myself and not do what I did with the Harry Potter series, which was depend on the opinions of others.

After this second class, we spent a considerable amount of time talking with three professors. Two of the professors, who were married, had homeschooled their daughter all the way through and now she attended that college where they both taught. It was great fun to talk with them about books and education! One of them quickly acknowledged that Priscilla was the kind of student they wanted on campus and another said encouragingly, "If the Lord wants you here, you'll be here!"

I was so impressed with the school and the instructors. Before this visit, I was not real excited for any of the kids to attend college but I came away with a new appreciation and an encouragement to help prepare my other children who might want to go.

Pris is pretty excited even though this school doesn't fit every single thing she wanted. She had quite an extensive wish list - truly Christian, close to home so she could live here, close to the dance studio, close enough to still be able to come to our church, and with a major in art. It is truly Christian, not too far from home (she would have to live on campus but she could come home on weekends and therefore come to church), and they do offer an art major. She would have to give up dance though. Not too bad considering her list.