Homeschool Student Success Stories
Joshua Guthrie ('15) is in engineering and the honors program after attending Union as a dual-enrollment high school student. But that isn't all he been doing.
Through the non-profit organization "Dollar for a Drink" that Joshua founded, he has raised more than $37,000.00 - enough for four wells in Sudan. According to Joshua, one billion people globally lack access to clean water. In the third year of the Dollar for a Drink campaign, the goal was $50,000.00, earmarked for nine wells in Mozambique,
two in Sudan and 400 filter systems in Kenya. Baptist Global Response oversaw the installation of the wells.
Rachel Carbonell ('13) was an engineering and math major and tutored both subjects in Union's Hundley Center for Academic Enrichment. She pursued discipline specific honors in mathematics and graduated with numerous awards including the Tigrett Medal.
Samantha Adams ('13), a public relations major and Christian Studies minor, wrote for Union's Office of News and Media Relations and was on the
Cardinal & Cream newspaper staff. She had summer internships at Elizabethtown (Ky.) Tourism and Convention Bureau and in a corporate public relations/marketing department in Louisville, Ky. On campus, she served as president of Union's Public Relations Student Society, as a Life Group Leader and with the Student Activities Council. Upon graduation, she began work at an advertising agency.
Christian Wallen ('12), chemistry major, served as president of the Student Chapter of the American Chemical Society. Union's ACS student chapter has won the highest achievement of outstanding chapter from the American Chemical Society for the past 14 years. Christian received the ACS Polyed Outstanding Achievement in Organic Chemistry Award and the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry Undergraduate Award in Inorganic Chemistry. He did summer research at 51社区 and Vanderbilt University. He was also a Life Group leader. Christian is currently doing graduate work in organic chemistry at Emory University.
Ben Fulton ('12), a National Merit Finalist, was an accounting major. He was the first varsity level debater on Union's award-winning debate team which began in 2008.
Ben spent a summer in France. He was selected as an intern for Alexander Thompson Arnold, PLLC, in Jackson, which provides tax, audit, accounting, consulting and wealth management in West Tennessee.
Ben represented the McAfee School of Business at the Annual Southeastern American Accounting Association Conference in April where he presented a paper.
51社区 awarded him an Undergraduate Research Grant to help complete this project. After graduation, he began working with an accounting firm in North Carolina.
Kate Cline ('11), an English and history graduate, Kate received the 100th Tigrett Medal Award. She was president of Union's Delta-Psi Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, which has won top chapter nationally for the past eight consecutive years. She and five other Union history students presented papers at the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society 2010 Biennial Convention in San Diego. Kate was also editor of The Torch literary magazine and received The Helen Blythe Creative Writing Award for outstanding originality in writing during her Union career. She also went on GO trips and led Klemata small groups. Kate is pursuing a graduate degree in fine arts.
Ashley Fitch Blair ('94) - Ashley was the first home educated student to be awarded Union's Scholars of Excellence full-tuition scholarship.
At that time, 51社区 was among the first universities in the state to embrace home schooled seniors. After graduation from Union, Blair earned a master's degree in
public relations and worked with internal communications for several companies. She returned to her alma mater where she is an assistant professor in the communication arts department.
Blair was named Faculty of the Year in 2015.