Our Educational Journey: College For A Weekend

Boy was this a week! I decided at the last minute to register my daughter for College For a Weekend (CFAW) at Liberty University. I dropped her off with a friend on Thursday and picked them up on Saturday. Princess is usually all work with very little play so I really wanted her to enjoy this experience. She had a ball.

Liberty University is the friendliest campus I’ve ever been on. The students share a similar spirit – everyone seems so happy to be there. They are helpful and accommodating. Each person we came in contact with was this way. Princess felt right at home.

We texted several times throughout the weekend. I knew if I waited until the end of the weekend she would forget many of the details of the weekend. One text from her read “I feel so inspired right now.” I was very encouraged by that. She attended a few classes in her desired major and took copious notes (check the box that says teach your homeschool kid how to take notes from a lecture). She said she learned a lot. The studio & digital art program at Liberty is fairly new. I hope they add more courses to the program by the time my daughter would be a freshman in 2015. Quite honestly, there are a lot of Universities with phenomenal art schools and foundation programs but it is so hard to dismiss what Liberty brings to the table. I’m glad we have 2 years to figure it all out.

She is ready to go to college but I remind her that one must qualify for college by doing well in their high school program. Perhaps this experience will refocus her efforts in her academics because now she can really see what she is working toward.

I excitedly shared the CFAW experience with several people. They are amazed that we are doing all of these sorts of things so early in high school. After reviewing College Commonsense, I realized that senior and junior year is so busy with challenging academics, SAT prep, scholarship essays, college essays, and all that volunteer work that now is the time for visits and giving my highschooler a vision for her future. If I may say so myself, that future looks very bright indeed.