by Heidie Raine, Student Public Relations Writer
Nearly 25% of Cedarville University undergraduate students come from home-education backgrounds. As this percentage continues to grow, the university is developing new ways to serve homeschool families, including its recent partnership with Christian Home Educators of Ohio (CHEO).
“When you homeschool your students, you can feel isolated,” Jim Amstutz, director of graduate admissions and student success, said. “CHEO builds a sense of community and offers a point of reference for those families so that as they’re customizing their students’ educational experiences, they have resources and opportunities.”
The partnership arose from conversations between Cedarville and CHEO representatives about Ohio’s College Credit Plus (CCP) program, which allows Ohio students to take free dual-credit courses during high school.
Cedarville’s dual enrollment program is called College Now.
“A lot of high school students don’t realize that they can use CCP funding to take classes at Christian institutions,” said Shellie Doub, Cedarville’s College Now recruiter.
At a recent convention in Sandusky, Ohio, Doub and CHEO board members met and began discussing ways to provide homeschool students with accurate, timely information about CCP funding and to ensure they know of participating Christian colleges like Cedarville. These conversations helped the partnership start to take shape over the summer.
The partnership allows CHEO’s 5,000+ parents to take advantage of a 15% graduate school discount, making a way for homeschool parents to pursue their own educational goals alongside their students.
“What I know as a homeschool mom is that when you’ve given up your career to stay home to educate your children and they hit high school, you start wondering, ‘What comes next?’” Doub explained. “A lot of homeschool parents I know have pursued graduate degrees, jump-starting their careers.”
Cedarville is also sponsoring upcoming CHEO events, including CHEO’s Capitol Day at the Ohio Statehouse in October and various webinars and high school symposiums.
“Our hope is that homeschool families can see that from the beginning of high school all the way through our grad programs, we offer a comprehensive education and care for our students,” Amstutz said.
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,715 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is one of the largest private universities in Ohio, recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, strong graduation, and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and high student engagement ranking. For more information about the University, visit www.cedarville.edu.