Office of Public Relations
Missouri Baptist University
One College Park Drive
Saint Louis, Missouri 63141-8698
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www.mobap.edu / pr@mobap.edu

For Immediate Release

RE: Home Schooled (Sort Of)

Home Schooled (Sort Of)

September 16, 2005

Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part series about academic opportunities for high school students at MBU. Check the Web site next Friday, Sept. 23, to learn about ways traditional high school students are earning college credit through MBU’s Excel program.

Nearly a month into his first semester, Zach Brda, like most new MBU students, had seemingly adjusted quite comfortably to his new life as a college student.

First-day fears had subsided. The initial shock caused by a heightened level of coursework has dissipated. Even the nerve-racking task of adjusting socially was all but an afterthought for Zach.

“It has been a really good experience so far,” Zach said as he stood in front of MBU’s Field Academic Hall one evening this September. “It’s been a little bit of an adjustment, but it’s nothing that is way too hard to handle.”

From facing first-time fears to making friends, Zach is in many ways like the majority of other MBU freshman.

Unlike many traditional college students however, Zach is 14 years old.

Through MBU’s dual enrollment program for home school students, Zach is taking advantage of a unique opportunity to earn college credit and complete requirements for high school graduation while taking general education courses at MBU. This semester, Zach is commuting twice a week from his South St. Louis County residence to take Survey of Computing, a three-credit course offered at MBU’s main campus.

“It’s an excellent opportunity not only for home school students to adapt to an institution of higher learning but they also are able to accrue college credit at a very affordable cost,” said Terry Dale Cruse, director of admissions at MBU and coordinator of the dual enrollment program. “It gives those students a head start in college and enhances their high school experience.”

Home school students who qualify for the program are able to take two, three-credit courses a semester at $90 per credit hour—a mere fraction of the cost compared to average tuition costs.

Now more than a decade after the program began in the fall of 1994, the growing program’s overriding purpose remains the same: To help better prepare home school students for college while making a substantive impact on their high school career.

“We wanted home school students to receive the same opportunity as students who attended traditional schools,” recalled Rob Cornwell, co-founder of the program and director of constituent relations and alumni affairs. “While students who attended traditional high schools were coming in with college credit through programs at their schools our home school students, who were very strong academically, were not getting the same opportunity.”

This year, Zach, who is enrolled in the maximum of six-credit hours this semester, is one of 25 home school students currently attending class at MBU through the dual-enrollment program.

It’s an opportunity that his mother, Tracy Brda, believes will be beneficial for years to come.

“He’s not only able to put this work on his high school transcript, but he’s able to also use it to complete a college degree,” she said. “He could have quite a bit of his college completed by the time he graduates high school. That’s really great.”

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Missouri Baptist University is a premier Christian university in Saint Louis, offering graduate and undergraduate studies in over thirty specialized fields and nine degrees. MBU's education and fine arts programs are nationally known in addition to business, religion, administration of justice, and more. MBU is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Missouri with an enrollment of over 4,500 students at five locations in the bi-state region — West County, Lincoln County, Jefferson County, Franklin County and the new Illinois extension at Lewis and Clark Community College.

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