What You Might Not Expect – Millenial Influx

By: Caleb Jonkman

Defining moments shape who we are. In the moment, some choices and decisions we make may not seem like a big deal, but they can turn out to be instrumental in our development. For Josh Olson, this concept rings true. Year? A young boy from Kalamazoo Michigan Josh was “just like the rest of his friends.” A 4th grader, “Narrowly focused, really only worried about what he was going to do at recess”, until one day he came home and his parents told him, “Wwe are adopting.” This important detail would change so much within the sphere of who Josh was. But in order to be able to fully understand who Josh became after that moment let’s skip ahead.

Josh is a freshman at Trinity Christian college, when asked about what influenced his decision to come to Trinity Josh said “Trinity was home for me, I saw diversity, strength, and a community I wanted to be a part of. “ This is the first step in Josh’s story. As he stepped onto campus he began to realize similarities with what he knew from home. He saw familiar faces, he saw a college experience he had been looking for. But he also saw a challenge. “I saw a campus trying to grow in diversity. But I also saw it struggling to find out what that concept meant.”
Josh Olson has become an absolute force on Trinity’s campus embodying love and diversity in a way I have not seen. He has become an ambassador for love, acceptance, and joy. And this is evidence by not just him but his peers as well. When asked about Josh Olson, and who he is to Trinity, Jared Jonkman had some high praise to give. “Josh is a great role model for me and others on campus. From his role as a student worker to his involvement with the basketball team, Josh displays Christ like leadership everywhere”.
When asked where this motivation to make a difference comes from Josh continues to point back to his adopted brother. “When we got my brother it changed everything, the world and standards I knew immediately changed. It opened my eyes to see the world differently and I couldn’t help but respond accordingly.”
And that is exactly what Josh has done. Josh has been instrumental on Trinity Christian’s men’s basketball team for the past few years through his leadership and kind spirit. Josh has added much value and teamwork to the business program, as well as maintaining a great GPA.
When asked about how he sees his role as a Christian leader on campus continuing forward for his senior year and in the rest of his life, Josh had a great response. “I don’t know what the future holds, or where the Lord is going to take me. But I know that if I continue to follow his will, work hard, and treat people the right way throughout the process, I am going to like where I end up regardless of what I think.” All this production and spiritual fruit are being shown to Josh, and the coolest part about it for him is that “it comes from a place you would not expect.”

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.