Introducing

the Class of

TwoThousandandThirteen

MIRANDA CLAIRE PHELPSMiranda was born in Bryan, College Station, Texas on September 19, 1995. She has lived her entire life in Texas, and has also been homeschooled since the very beginning. Mi-randa participated in her homeschool co-op, REACH, as a Secretary for the Student Coun-cil two one-year terms in a row. She also volunteered and greatly enjoyed her job as a TAG (Teen Art Guide) for the McNay Mu-seum of Modern Art in San Antonio. While working for the museum, Miranda’s passion for the arts flourished and she now is seek-ing a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a studies focus in Visual Communications. Thanks to her receiving the Leadership Scholarship among other academic rewards from her chosen college, this education will soon be fulfilled as she is thrilled to attend the Uni-versity of Mary Hardin-Baylor in the fall se-mester of 2013. She can only explain her life as a testament to God’s unending grace and love, and aspires to show this through what-ever plans He may have for her.

ABBIE RENEE HELENA KEELERAbbie was born and raised in Littleton, N.H. She has three older brothers, who are mar-ried. So far she also has two little nephews and an adorable niece. She has two of the most amazing parents who have encouraged her and comforted her through all of her “mental breakdowns,” which she claims to have a lot of . After graduating, Abbie plans to try to find a job in journalism. If she enjoys that line of work she might take a few college courses. She says she really would like to be done with homework though and just get out there and work.

PATIENCE MARIE TYNEPatience is a New Jersey native and the big sister among James and Josephine Tyne’s five children. An avid reader of history and literature, Patience also enjoys singing in choirs, playing Celtic music on her bag-pipes, practicing Spanish with her hispanic friends, dabbling in architectural drawings, and debating world views with people from different faiths. Outside of school, Patience delights in regularly organizing social ac-tivities with friends from different circles to go ice-skating, explore New York City, eat Spanish food, make jewelry or see a movie. Patience loves the Lord and has brought joy to her family by her steadfast virtue and gar-rulous personality. Next year, Patience plans to study History and Spanish and someday possibly pursue law or architecture.

KATHRYN ANN BOGARTKate was born in Augusta, Georgia, in March of 1995. She is the oldest of three; she has a 16-year-old sister and an 11-year-old brother. She has been homeschooled all of her life, and has appreciated the wonderful opportu-nities it has given her. Kate previously attend-ed Northeast Bible Church before moving to Albuquerque, N.M. for two years. She was blessed, and able to return to San Antonio, and graduate with her friends from Junior High. Over various moves, Kate has been able to find many things that interested her. She has played soccer, tennis, and was a sprint-er in track. She was elected REACH Student Council President in her Junior Year, and vol-unteers at the McNay Art Museum. Through every move, Kate continued in AWANA, and earned the Citation Award in May. Kate had leading roles in local productions of the Jungle Book, Broadway in a Box, and On the Worst Day of Christmas. This fall, Kate will be attending Dallas Baptist University, pursuing Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems, with an Academic Honors Scholar-ship, Christian Leadership Scholarship, and the AWANA Citation Scholarship.

BL ISS ALETHEIA AVRABliss was born in Lake County, Oregon, but presently resides in South Asia with her fam-ily where they serve the Lord through com-munity development. She enjoys writing and playing guitar. Next year Bliss will attend Columbia International University in South Carolina and get a degree in teaching and counseling.

MADISON NOELLE MACMATHMadson was born December 22, just outside of Chicago. In the fall, Maddie will be leaving her Georgia sun and returning to the Windy City, attending Wheaton College. Maddie has always had a love for traveling and she has a heart for the world and spreading the Gospel. In April, she was able to work alongside sev-eral long-term missionaries in Hinduism-sat-urated India. Mission work has captured her heart. Maddie plans on getting her B.A. in communications or international relations from Wheaton College, and pursuing higher education in theology or applied linguistics to prepare her for full-time ministry. Although she could not be more excited for college, Maddie will never forget the amazing expe-riences that Veritas afforded her. The smiles and laughter that Mr. Etter and Mrs. Stublen gave her during difficult classes, as well as the knowledge gained from academic chal-lenges presented by Dr. Collender, Mr. Baker, Mr. Jones, and others have prepared Maddie for college and beyond. She is convinced she is leaving high school with some of the best friends in the world. With gratitude, she grad-uates alongside friends who have challenged her spiritually, inspired her academically, and never failed to make her laugh.

DANIEL DOMINIQUE SANTOROSince beginning his homeschooling journey in kindergarten, Daniel has shown an apti-tude for math and a keen interest in building. In 2005 he joined a Lego robotics team. Dan-iel then heard about the VEX Robotics team, Driven Bolts, and has been working with them since 2009. While a member of the team, he has competed in the VEX Robotics World Championship in 2010, 2011, and 2013. During 2010 Daniel helped mentor his younger brother’s FIRST LEGO League team. For the past two years Daniel has been a cadet on the Colts Neck First Aid Squad and was nominated to First Lieutenant in 2012. He studies the Isshinryu style of karate un-der Sensei Mike Scott, who promoted him to purple belt in March 2012. As a dog handler since February 2011, he has been training his Golden Retriever, Indy, in agility. Daniel enjoys traveling and has visited Argentina, Canada, France, Italy, and many states within the U.S.A. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys writing fan fiction, playing trading card games online, and designing video games. For the last three sum-mers, he interned for Black Rocket at Brook-dale Community College in their video game design camps. Daniel plans on pursuing a ca-reer in game design/computer science.

BRIAN EDWARD CURRIGANBrian was born in Santa Rosa, California on December 31, 1994 to loving parents Dr. Barney and Robin Currigan. Brian has two brothers and two sisters. He has lived in Marble, Washington since 1995 and attends Marble Community Fellowship. Brian was homeschooled through third grade and educated at the Marble Elementary School through grade seven. He has attended the Veritas Press Scholars Academy since eighth grade. Brian has enjoyed participating in football and baseball at Northport High School. He has served on his church sound team for six years. Since age 10 Brian has been active in the Boy Scouts of America and in 2013 he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. He has been playing piano since he was six years old and he is currently teach-ing himself guitar. Brian apprenticed in welding for four years with a gifted metal artist. He is interested in sports of all kinds, music, and various outdoor activities. Brian has a great sense of humor and loves com-edy. He has been accepted to attend New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho. He hopes to one day join the police force.

MITCHELL MYUNG KIL ALESTINEMitchell was born in Daejeon, South Korea and lives in Middletown, Rhode Island. He is the son of Bill and Laurie Aseltine. He has an older sister, Amee, an older brother, Alex, and a younger sister, Carrie. Mitchell was a four-year Varsity Soccer letterman at Mid-dletown High School and made All State Di-vision III 2nd Team as well as being a mem-ber of the Newport Daily News All County Boys Soccer Team. Mitchell is an artist and has greatly appreciated his instruction un-der Mr. Spirduso for the last three years via VPSA and Schola Artium. He plans to con-tinue his studies in Art, specifically in the field of Entertainment Design.

SIERRA MACKENZIE BREWERSierra was born in Southern California, and has had the privilege of being homeschooled with her two sisters, and parents, with whom she is truly blessed. Sierra has always appre-ciated the flexibility and freedom to pursue “everything.” She’s enjoyed music, leading to performing arts and piano teaching; and has had the opportunity to perform in sev-eral Shakespeare productions. Her life verses are Jer. 29:11-13, and Is. 43:1-7. Future goals include becoming a godly home-keeper with a mission to help others have an applicable Biblical worldview through her music, writ-ing, and personal interaction with young teens and children, including mission work in India and inner-cities; and, if the Lord wills, someday becoming a wife and moth-er as His refined vessel. She loves to worship God through music, writing, and photogra-phy. As new doors open, her heart’s desire is to faithfully surrender to Jesus, seeking first His kingdom and righteousness. Sierra would like to thank you her Abba-Father, for all He has worked in her life and the bless-ings, which He bestows upon her daily…to her ‘Marmee’ and Dad, for always encourag-ing and directing in His path… to her sisters, with whom she can’t imagine life without.

VALENTINE SOPHIA HOFFMAN Valentine was born in Los Gatos, California, and moved to the small town of Reedley, California, when she was five years old. She currently lives on a mandarin farm with her parents and three younger brothers: Soren, Isaak, and Wolfgang. When she is not busy with school, she enjoys debate, piano, ball-room dancing, and a good book. Above all, Valentine loves the Lord, and is thankful to Him and to her wonderful teachers for nur-turing her these past 17 years! She asks that you continue to pray for her as she contin-ues her education at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, in the fall as an Agricultural Business major.

MYLES GAGEEM LUMMyles, born June 5, 1995, was brought up in the bright city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Ever since he was a wee lad, Myles has loved an-imals. To this day, he loves to draw and pho-tograph them. He was able to improve these crafts over all four years of high school with his beloved art teacher, Mr. Spirduso. Myles says of high school, “Veritas Press is truly one of the greatest blessings God has given me. I’m so thankful to have been able to study under and work with such wonderful broth-ers and sisters in Christ.” One of his favorite classes was Omnibus, which ignited his love for debate and reasoning. Myles now wants to pursue this passion after high school and major in English, humanities, or philosophy. He then wants to proceed to law school. He believes that he is being called to go out and defend others through law. Myles is ready for this new adventure.

ISABELLE ANNE BUHR Isabelle was born in the heart of the Rock-ies in Laramie, Wyoming. She grew up on a cattle ranch outside the city with her three siblings, Claire (14), Jordan (13), and John (12). Isabelle’s family has since moved the ranching operation to Northwest Nebraska, where Isabelle loves to work with her horse, a black gelding named Jet Rebel. She is very proud of Jet, and says that no horse can touch him when he feels like running. So far, that’s true. Isabelle loves to read just about anything and everything, and thoroughly enjoys writing Omnibus papers. Some of her hobbies include writing several different stories at a time and getting them all mixed together, raising sheep, playing piano, and drawing with pencils or charcoal. This fall, Isabelle will be attending Creighton Univer-sity in Omaha, Nebraska, where she intends to major in Classical Studies with a minor in Creative Writing or Journalism.

KATHERINE MONTGOMERYKate was born in Denver, Colorado, while her mother was stationed at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center. For most of her life she has lived in California, in the mountains near Yo-semite. She loves the outdoors, rides horses, plays guitar, and is an avid soccer player. She played soccer in California in the highest club divisions and was awarded a scholarship to Youngstown State University in Ohio, where she will play goalkeeper. While attending Youngstown, she will study European lan-guages with plans to pursue Intercultural Re-lations and a Vatican City internship, thanks to her Latin studies at Veritas Press. When she is not at soccer training, she is debating theology with her sister and Omnibus classmates, playing Avenged Sevenfold, Kills-witch Engage, or Times of Grace on her electric guitar (without the amp), or working with her beautiful horse, Alluring Score. Her favorite bi-ble verses are James 2:18 and Ephesians 2:8. What she will miss most about Veritas Press are the wonderful teachers she had the privilege to learn under, in classes from math-ematics to Omnibus. If she is graduating this year, the credit most certainly goes to her Cal-culus teacher’s limitless patience and effort in assisting her very non-mathematical mindset.

SAMUEL ER IC TITUS Samuel was born in Oklahoma City and lives in Upper Red Hook, New York, with his two beautiful sisters and his parents. He lived for six years in the post-communist country of Croatia, where his parents served as mis-sionaries at an ecumenical seminary before returning to the pastorate in New York last year. He attended the local Croatian schools before being homeschooled and joining the Diploma Program at Veritas Press his soph-omore year. He speaks Croatian and plans to spend the summer in Croatia working as a youth leader at his local Croatian church and serving as a camp counselor encourag-ing missionary kids in the region as they deal with the challenges of living abroad and in-teracting with their Balkan host cultures. He plans to attend a Reformed college in the fall. When he is not reading his Veritas materials, he enjoys writing, taking walks and learning to play the organ.

CHERYL ANN COLEMANCheryl Ann was born in Jacksonville, Flori-da, and lived in St. Augustine for a little while with her parents and younger sister, Andrea. Then God blessed her with the opportunity to live and be raised overseas as a missionary kid starting at the age of seven. She grew up travelling and moving constantly, until God called her father to become the pastor of a church in south Florida a year ago. Veritas Press has been a huge blessing in her life and provided stability throughout all the transitions. As well, Cheryl Ann says her parents have been hugely encouraging and supportive and pressed her to do her best. She has been accepted to Liberty University in Virginia and hopes to attend this fall, af-ter returning from a summer mission trip to France. Cheryl Ann plans to major in Nurs-ing, and minor in Family and Consumer Sci-ences. After university, she hopes to return to the mission field. She is incredibly excited about life and can’t wait to watch God work.

ALEXANDRA MARIAH YOUSSEFAlexandra was raised in San Diego, Cali-fornia, and currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With a strong interest in screenwriting and film studies, she hopes to study Directing and/or Psychology in col-lege. Her hobbies include writing, drawing, and acting. There are many significant mem-ories she has of Veritas Press, such as taking Film and Worldview class, Spanish class, and Fiction Writing, where her passions for those subjects grew, and taking Omnibus classes of course, with teachers like Mr. Etter and Mr. Davis, who made learning fun. She enjoyed learning how to debate, write well, speak well, and grow in her faith while form-ing long-lasting friendships.

ANDREA JOY COLEMAN Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Andrea spent the first six years of her life in the oldest town in America, St. Augustine, before mov-ing overseas for the next nine years as mis-sionaries, where she and her family lived in various places of Europe and North Africa. Her family returned to Hollywood, Florida, in 2011, where her father is now pastor of Sher-idan Hills Baptist Church. Veritas Press has been a huge blessing throughout the high school years, and Andrea can’t thank God enough for all of the amazing teachers who have poured so much of their lives into all of the students. This fall she plans on taking classes with Liberty Online, and will Lord willing go to Liberty University in the fall of 2014 to study a combination of Criminal Justice, Psychology, Foreign Linguistics, and Military Studies. Andrea’s ambition is to ei-ther become a forensic psychologist, a hos-tage negotiator with the FBI Crisis Negotia-tion Unit, or a member of the United States military reserve force, but she’s still keeping her options open to whatever direction God decides to lead her. First and foremost, she says she wants to honor Him and follow whatever plan He has in mind.

AIDEN MCKENZEY KANEViolist Aiden Kane was born in Texas, where she first learned what a violin was and be-gan learning to play one. When she was six, she moved to Maryland, where her parents decided to homeschool her. When she was eleven, her parents discovered the awesome-ness that is online schooling, and she began her studies at VPSA. Around the same time, Aiden discovered the awesomeness that is the viola, and began to play a violin strung up as a viola. Her passion for the viola grew over the years, and she has since bought a real viola, and attended amazing places such as Itzhak Perlman’s summer music institute with it. Most recently, she has relocated to the Colburn School of Music in California where she attends the Academy program.Aiden would like to thank her many music teachers over the years: Kay Mueller, Suzy Perelman, Linda Fiore, Michael McLean, Ronda Cole, Dan Foster, and Paul and Gina Coletti; as well as her VPSA teachers, for their support. She would especially like to thank her mother, father, and brother— Adrienne, Martin, and Zubin— for believ-ing in her talents and fostering her abilities. Aiden plans on attending the Colburn Con-servatory in the fall.

MELBA MILLS PEARSON Melba was born and raised in Aspen, Col-orado, where she now resides with her parents and two younger brothers. After graduating from VPSA, she plans to at-tend college to study classical violin per-formance and science in preparation for medical school. She hopes to become a pe-diatric neurosurgeon. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends, reading, learning, dancing (classical ballet), playing and listening to classical music, and spend-ing time outdoors. The past four years at VPSA have built an incredible foundation for Melba, and she is excited to see what the Lord has in store for her future.

OLIVER MURDOCH MCLEODOliver was born in Los Angeles and resides with my family in the house where he was born. His family has a wonderful Hollywood hillside home where they have had awesome air-soft wars and friend-gatherings in the amazing tree-house his father built. Oliver is the youngest member of the family of five: his father Dr. Neil McLeod, his mother, Nan-cy, his brother Roddy, and sister, Maran. The family attends a phenomenal church, Grace Community. Oliver enjoys travel, challeng-ing backpacking/trekking opportunities, anything tech, figuring things out—especial-ly thinking of different ways to solve prob-lems, 3-D model design, tennis, martial arts, and reading for leisure. After graduation, he will spend the month of June in France and will attend Hillsdale College in the fall.

KAELEEN HALL MARTIN Kaeleen was born and raised in Connecticut. She plans on attending Manchester Com-munity College and then on to Eastern Con-necticut University to pursue her Secondary Teaching Certification in English Literature. Kaeleen loves theatre, creative writing, and the ocarina. Her favorite kinds of movies are tear-jerkers and her favorite books are Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables. After four years with VPSA and countless classroom memories, she is particularly indebted to Mrs. Baker, Mr. Jones, Mr. Baker, Mr. Etter, and Mrs. Owens for their passion, insight, and humor.

GWENDOLYN EL IZABETH SVEUMGwendolyn enjoys bicycling, stamp col-lecting, wildlife rehabilitation, meteorolo-gy, geography, and being involved in her neighborhood. A Canadian citizen, born and raised in Wisconsin, it’s no surprise she loves to travel and explore other countries and cultures. She recently traveled through-out Europe and Turkey with her parents and brother Timothy, experiencing many of the sites, cities, lands, and works of art studied in the Omnibus curriculum. Veritas Press classes became part of Gwendolyn’s educa-tion in grade nine. Through the years, she has enjoyed the excellent teachers and depth of class discussions. Next year Gwendolyn plans to study Biology and Theology, and hopes to work part-time.

CONNOR JAMES NISSLEYConnor was born and raised in Pennsylva-nia where he still lives with his parents and four siblings. After graduating from VPSA, he plans on attending Grove City College for Computer Science. He enjoys spending time with his friends and family, gaming, playing guitar and soccer.

JUL IA MARIE GROTENHUIS Julia was born in Warrenton, Virginia and currently resides in Madison County, rural central Virginia. She is part of a family of five. Her mother is an RN at UVA Medical Cen-ter and her dad is a soil and groundwater specialist. Julia is the middle child and has an older brother (22) and a younger sister (16). Her two passions in life are music and people. Julia is interested in psychology, an-thropology, sociology, neuroscience, meteo-rology, and philosophy. She spends her free time writing down her thoughts, playing the piano, studying personality theory, and as-tounding the world with her nerdiness. Julia is extremely grateful to all of her teachers and would like to thank VPSA for teaching her something not every school does—how to think for herself.

LUKE AARON MARTINLuke was born and raised in Lancaster Coun-ty , Pennsylvania. He has an older brother, Ja-cob, and younger brother, Daniel. Luke has a love for languages and has devoted the past five years studying Latin and Greek. His hob-bies include playing trumpet, soccer, compet-itive frisbee, and studying the martial art of Krav Maga. Luke will be attending Hillsdale College and furthering his studies in Latin and Greek. Luke has been self-motivated, honest, and shown integrity in all things he has pursued. After completing six years at a public school, Luke came home stating that he would not continue and go to the middle school next year. When asked what he would do, he confidently said to his mother, “You will homeschool me so I can learn.”

JONATHAN DANIEL WILL IAMSJonathan was born in Southfield, Michigan to Michael and Diana Williams and lives in the small city of Lathrup Village, a suburb of Detroit. He is the youngest of four children and has two sisters, Dayna and Kimberly, and one brother, David. His academic interests include biology, Latin, and classical literature. As for non-academic interests, Jonathan is a historical reenactment snare drummer in a Revolutionary War fife and drum corps and in a Civil War reenactment regiment, prac-ticing the historical style of drumming from these time periods. Additional interests in-clude collecting and building with Star Wars Legos, reading, and playing the piano. In col-lege, he plans to further his study of classical languages, literature, and history, and ulti-mately he would like to pursue a career as a physician and conduct biomedical research in the field of neuroscience.

JUSTIN ARNOLD ABENS Justin was born on October 27, 1995 to Ar-nie and Jennifer Abens in Edina, Minnesota. He is the youngest of four children. He lives in Minnetrista, Minnesota where he enjoys watersports, riding horses, playing the piano, and hanging out with friends. Justin will be attending New Saint Andrews College this fall where he will get a degree in Liberal Arts and Culture.

DIPLOMAPROGRAM