Hey guys! So as y’all should already know (if you’ve been reading my blog), I’ve just enrolled at Charter Oak State College (COSC). [Go mighty live-oak trees!!! – (sarcasm)] I am only taking one course because I am fulfilling all of the other degree requirements with CollegeBoard’s CLEP exams and other college-level exams. The course that I am taking is required for graduation, and it is their Cornerstone course. COSC has only two required courses that you take from their college, and both of these courses (the Cornerstone Course and the Capstone Course) are available online. The Cornerstone course is designed to help students learn how to interact with other students online and focuses a lot on research!
Throughout this course we are assigned readings from several different books, one of which is Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. Gladwell’s purpose for this book, I think, is to show how not all famous or talented people are self-made. He uses many examples of well-known figures to show that a lot of the time these people are substantially helped to rise to their current level. These people were given opportunities that helped them succeed, something that they could not have done otherwise. (This is just my observation, but I think that this might also apply to those of us who are using Dual Credit at Home’s program – which is an opportunity that lots of other people do not get that will help us succeed and become “Outliers.”) My course is eight weeks long, and we are currently in week five. I don’t know how this is possible, but somehow this course is seeming to take even longer than my speech course which is 12 weeks long! This course counts for 3 credits that will be applied towards my BA.
Next week I will be leaving for Jamaica for a week with three of my siblings on vacation! … Which means if I want to reach the 100 credit mark by May I’m gonna have to study while we’re there. 🙁
The pic at the top of this post is from a recent visit to the testing center. I love to learn and then have that learning assessed and be awarded college credit for it! Moving on with my tests…Next Tuesday I am testing for a DSST (my first ever) called Intro to World Religions. I didn’t have to study very long for this one – only a couple of weeks – because both my studies and my life experiences leading up to this have covered a lot of different religions. Today I took a practice test for Intro to World Religions, and I made a 65 so I get to take it! 🙂 That means once I have taken Intro to World Religions and finished up my speech class and Charter Oak’s Cornerstone class I will only need five more 3-credit tests to reach 100 college credits, which is my goal for the end of May. I’ve been told once I have 100 credits I can get my driver’s license! Although, I won’t get it until August because I will be gone all summer. Mom and I haven’t decided exactly which exams I will be taking to earn those 15 credits, but I know they’ll include US History II and Business Ethics & Society.
At the end of May my family and I are going to a Christian camp called S.M.I.T.E., which stands for Summer Missionary Institute of Training and Evangelism. It’s a week-long camp for teens that teaches how to share the wordless book (gospel) and how to lead a 5-day Bible Club. A pretty large group from our church is going, and I am uber excited!!! After that week of camp, there is a month long trip that some of us get to go on called BLITZ, where we will be conducting 5-day Bible Clubs in neighborhoods and apartment complexes throughout the state of Mississippi.
Here’s what I’ve done – you can do this too!
2015
April
Introduction to World Religions DSST – 3 Upper Level credits (underway)
Cornerstone Course online – 3 credits (underway)
Professional Speech & Communication – 3 credits (underway)
March
Humanities CLEP – PASSED! 6 credits
Natural Sciences CLEP – (I changed my mind about taking this test because I’ve already met the Science requirements!)
February
American Government CLEP – PASSED! 3 credits
January – 18 credits earned in one month!
College Mathematics CLEP – PASSED! 6 credits
Social Sciences & History CLEP – PASSED! 6 credits
College Composition CLEP – PASSED! 6 credits (I’ll only be awarded 3 credits for this exam since I’ve already earned 3 in the on-campus class)
2013-2015 (Age 14-16) – 37 credits earned in Junior College classes
The Healthy American – 3 credits
Coaching Sports & Athletics – 3 credits
World Regional Geography – 3 credits
Exercise – 1 credit
First Aid – 3 credits
Fundamentals of Music – 3 credits
Beginning Spanish – 4 credits
Human Anatomy & Physiology I – 4 credits
Human Anatomy & Physiology II – 4 credits
English Composition – 3 credits
College Algebra – 3 credits
Introductory Psychology – 3 credits
2010-2012 (Age 12-14)
Analyzing & Interpreting Literature CLEP – PASSED! 6 credits
U.S. History I CLEP – PASSED! 3 credits
U.S. History II CLEP – Not Passed. (I’ll take it again this spring, and this time I’ll have a Study Plan!)
Western Civilization I CLEP – PASSED! 3 credits
