Aiken area homeschool graduates honored at 15th annual homeschool commencement ceremony

May 13—A homeschool commencement ceremony was held at River of Life Church in Aiken on Friday evening to honor area homeschool graduates.

Event organizer and former homeschool mom Wendy Hoyle said the ceremony marked 15 years of celebrating homeschooled graduates and their families.

"It's really just so much fun to see the differences in the families and the graduates and everything they've accomplished and the parents do walk the children in because it's just as much of an accomplishment for the parents as it is for the children," Hoyle said.

Parents also presented their graduates with diplomas.

Hoyle said what makes the event special is that many of the graduates know each other already thanks to homeschool co-op groups and through extracurricular activities.

"A lot of these kids know each other and have literally grown up together," Hoyle said. "Even though they may not be in a school setting every day, they're still at church together and in karate together ... it is awesome to see."

Graduates honored at the ceremony included Daniel Ateca, Hannah Benson-Dursse, Jacob Bohman, Megyn Bolen, Reagan Crocker, Christopher Collum, Aiden Crumpton, Avonlea Davis, Cambria Davis, James Dennis, Elizabeth Farquhar, Nolan Green, Evan Holtsizer, Piper Kerlin, Sarah Kuhn, Joshua Lively, Levi Magniez, Josephine Massey, Collin Smith and Robert Thomas.

Daniel Ateca, who has never been in a traditional classroom, spoke about his homeschool experience.

"I think it was really special for me to be able to be homeschooled, because it could be kind of customized to how I needed to learn something," he said.

Ateca will attend Winthrop University in the fall and will study art history.

Josephine Massey is the seventh graduate out of a family of 10 siblings.

"Six of my older siblings have already graduated. So I got to watch their graduations, all six of them graduated here in this exact place," she said. "So for it to be me, I'm like, wow, this is crazy."

Massey is considering attending Aiken Tech to receive her associate degree in applied science.

Elizabeth Farquhar said that this milestone was special for her because she was one of the first to graduate high school in her family. "I've got only one other cousin that's graduating so I'm kind of the first for a lot of our family," she said.

Farquhar plans to attend Covenant College where she plans to double major in history and psychology. She hopes to eventually pursue a career in law enforcement.

Both Massey and Farquhar agreed that they couldn't have made it this far without their parents.

"My mom has put in so much time," added Massey. "Looking back at all 12 years, I'm so glad I was homeschooled."