Precisely 10 years ago, in 2015, I wrote this blog post to share with friends and family of our decision to pull Bridgette out of traditional schooling to explore a potential path of alternative education. I’m currently getting all the feels writing this follow up blog post as I reflect back on this decade long journey that will soon conclude as Bridgette prepares to head off to college.
In 2015, Bridgette was half way into third grade when we decided to pull her of the public school system. I was still running my wedding planning business full force and Alan still had a full time job. Taking advantage of the flexibility I had in being self-employed, I began the huge learning curve on how to homeschool Bridgette while juggling my career. There are about a million different kinds of homeschooling methods and the universal message was this:
Every child is different, so create a homeschool curriculum that best suits your child’s interests, learning style, and educational goals.
We dibble dabbled with different methods in the beginning. We tried unschooling, then homeschooling, then online schooling, and a bunch of other methods in between. It took about a year before we found our groove in the form of Worldschooling, a form of education that uses the context of the world to learn through hands on experiences, historical sites, service projects, and cultural immersion. Thus began Bridge and my journey of traveling around the globe for 9 years, with COVID only keeping us homebound for just 6 months.
Through this last decade, Bridgette and I explored nearly 60 countries across 6 continents. Worldschooling became not just an education for my daughter, but also for me, because 2 years in, I decided to close my business and be 100% committed to my role as a full time mom. In hindsight now, I can say with absolute certainty that it was the best decision of my life. I got the privilege of getting a front row seat to watch God shape Bridgette during some of the most formative years of her life. We have been able to have deep, introspective conversations on every topic imaginable as we experienced the world together, allowing us to understand one another in the most profound ways. This led us to become the best of friends, forming an inexplicable bond and defying the stereotypes of turbulent mother-daughter relationships. I will forever be grateful that as Bridgette prepares to leave the nest, I can look back and say that I got to maximize and cherish every single day I had with her during her childhood, and that for the last decade, I got to be fully present to soak it all in.
There were two concerns from well intentioned family and friends when we embarked on this journey.
How will she learn?
How will she socialize?
In full transparency, these same thoughts certainly crossed Alan and my mind as well, but they never became a source of anxiety for us. God truly filled us with tremendous peace through this entire journey, which gave us even more confidence that it was a God-led journey. We observed and tried to understand deeply how Bridgette learned best, what motivated her the most, and what kind of things inspired her. The elementary and middle school years were easier, as she mostly learned in the context of whichever country we were in, coupled with consistent online classes for core subjects such as English and Math. Once she hit 9th grade, we had to really sit down and reevaluate the journey once again. The academics of the high school years matter a lot more if her goal was to go to a 4 year university. Plus, teens are known to have a strong need for a consistent community and friendships. We gave Bridgette the option to go back to a traditional school if she wanted to. We weighed the pros and cons for each option as a family. In the end, she decided to continue Worldschooling. As for college, she wasn’t entirely sure she’d want to go directly after high school, or if at all. She was interested in living abroad, specifically Japan. We certainly didn’t expect her to have it all figured out as a freshman in high school, so we proceeded with just a very open mindset. Alan and I weren’t worried about her academics at all, nor did we ever believe that college was the one and only path to success. We were always more focused on helping her build foundational elements that we believe would be more sustainable throughout life, such as cultivating a love for learning, being curious about everything, having solid critical thinking skills, growing a service-oriented heart, and having a strong moral compass. In case she did want to apply directly to a university though, we decided to intensify her academic curriculum just a bit to help her prepare. We enrolled her into a handful of asynchronous online college courses through Arizona State University, such as Psychology, Economics, English Lit, Biology, and other courses to demonstrate her academic abilities on her future college applications.
We continued traveling and the world continued filling her mind, heart, and soul with more knowledge, curiosity, courage, and empathy than any brick and mortar school could’ve ever given her. History came alive from the textbooks when she visited Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland, crawled through the claustrophobic Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam, walked through the vast, majestic complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, journeyed back in time through the historical city of Petra, rang the Bell of Peace at the Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan, and walked the Holy Land in Israel. Her endurance was put to the test when she climbed the Great Wall of China, hiked the Himalayas, cycled through Cuba, kite surfed in the Philippines, and motorbiked (with Alan) through Vietnam. Her love and respect for animals were fostered when we got up and personal to the incredible wildlife in Kenya, in the Galapagos, in the Amazon jungle, and when she stayed at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. She learned to be generous with her time and resources through all the service work we did—teaching English in a small village in Ecuador at the height of COVID, preparing meals in a small town in Guatemala to address the issue of malnutrition, raising money for schools in Kenya, renovating shelters for the homeless in Alaska, running a summer camp in Brazil for at-risk children, and so much more. Her science “labs” included working at sea for a week with marine biologists in Costa Rica. Her Japanese fluency advanced significantly when she took a solo trip to a small town in Japan to work for an udon shop one summer. She learned invaluable life lessons simply by living a nomadic life and experiencing the world not as a tourist, but as a worldschooler. Her comfort zone was non-existent because she was constantly pushed into very uncomfortable situations, such as being scammed in foreign countries, staying in places without hot water or electricity, traveling during the peak of COVID, losing our luggages, being deathly ill abroad, and the list goes on.
Most importantly though, Worldschooling infused into Bridgette the kind of character traits that Alan and I valued greatly in raising her. It has taught and shaped Bridgette to be incredibly adaptable, resilient, perceptive, and brave. It has opened her heart to love and serve others in profound ways. It has expanded her mind to understand and to embrace the differences in people. It has grown her faith and allowed her to trust in God in all circumstances. It has created a curious thinker and a problem solver in Bridgette. As for her social life? It flourished, even as she lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Being a worldschooler at a young age, Bridge grew up engaging not just with her peers, but with people of all ages and demographics. She never felt the need to define friendships simply by proximity and similarity. She maintained a number of friendships back at home with peers, but she also cultivated friendships with people from all around the world. And boy, did she get to meet some interesting people of all facets of life– 90 year old Ama divers in Japan, nomadic Bedouin families in Jordan, off the grid farmers living unconventional lifestyles, descendants of those who experienced the terror of the Holocaust and the Cambodia genocide, Berber families in the Agafay desert, and other worldschoolers from different parts of the world! Each of their stories have taught and inspired us greatly. What an immeasurable gift.
Were there any tradeoffs? Ofcourse! The comfort of home was a big one. It often felt like we were always sleeping in new beds, figuring out new languages, learning new directions, and adapting to new cultural norms. I felt perpetually jetlagged. Bridgette had to keep up with her online classes in all different time zones and that was rough. Alan and I had to learn how to navigate a semi-long distance relationship. Some days and some places felt incredibly isolating and lonely. Bridgette missed out on a ton of birthdays and holidays with her peers. She also never got to participate in any sports or clubs, although she was very fortunate to have kept up with a lot of social activities with her peers whenever we were home for a slightly longer stretch. She attended football games at our local high school, got super involved with youth group at our local church, experienced several concerts (including Taylor Swift!) with her besties, and went to homecoming dances, winter retreats, summer camps, and junior prom all in between our extensive travel schedules! This week, she’ll be headed to senior prom with her boyfriend(!!), and then this July, she’ll be headed to Asia for a senior trip with friends. So yes, while there were certainly tradeoffs in maintaining this nomadic lifestyle, I’d say she still got a pretty good taste of both worlds.
When it came time to think more seriously about life after high school, we had some long family conversations to discuss the various paths for Bridgette, and we really allowed her to take the lead in her own future. She was not interested in taking the SAT or any AP classes/tests simply for the sake of college applications. She also did not want to rush to meet any ED/EA deadlines. Surprisingly, she was still keen to try going through the college application process, but the idea of going back to a traditional school environment with hours on end in a classroom setting didn’t necessarily appeal to her. She was most interested in trying to live abroad for a longer period of time, specifically Japan, so we mostly worked towards this path for her during the end of her junior year. Come Fall semester of her senior year, she began the college application process in a rather lighthearted way. She worked hard on her essays, collected recommendation letters, and organized all of her extracurricular activities while I, as her official homeschool Principal and Administrator, poured hours and hours into pulling together her transcript and academic information from the last 3.5 years. She decided that if she were to go to a 4 year university in the U.S., she’d prefer to stay in California, so she focused on applying to in-state schools only– a handful of UC’s, CalPoly’s, and several private universities down in Southern Cal. In our family’s mind, we had narrowed it down to 2 paths. The first one, which we all felt was the better choice, was for Bridgette to move to Japan by herself. She’d get her student visa by enrolling in a language school. She’d rent an apartment to live by herself and find a part time job. She could do online community college in case she wanted to transfer back to a U.S. university in 2 years. This path seemed the more challenging and fitting path for Bridge, given all that she’s accomplished and experienced in life thus far. The other path would be to pursue a traditional 4 year U.S. university.
God works in the most mysterious and astounding ways. He leads us on paths that we never even considered ourselves. In October 2024, our family flew to Toronto to attend the wedding of a dear friend. It was there that Alan and I remembered a gal, Anais, that we met years ago, back when Bridgette was still in middle school. Anais had come to San Francisco to attend a fairly new university call Minerva University and our mutual friend had connected us then. Seeing Anais as one of the bridesmaids at this wedding triggered the memory of our time together, and how intrigued Alan and I were after hearing about Minerva. This reconnection spiraled into obsessive research into Minerva University, and we found ourselves absolutely blown away by its educational philosophy and approach to higher education. It has now been named as the #1 most innovative university in the world for several years, and deservingly so. Every detail to Minerva’s design feels so intentional and makes so much sense to us as our world evolves at lightening speed. They have a reverse classroom approach that focuses on intense preparation prior to class to ensure maximum engagement and participation during class. They rotate cohorts of students between 7 different countries to shape them into global citizens through cultural immersion, civic projects, and partnership with local universities abroad, internships, etc. They carefully select their student body to include students from over a 100 different countries. Students are involved in research and work experience at companies and nonprofit organizations in the cities where they stay so they can directly apply what they learn in class in real life settings. Its main focus is not for students to passively gather information and knowledge but rather, to help students build cognitive skills to solve complex problems and foster constructive decision-making. As we understood more and more about Minerva, it was clear to our family that this university would be the perfect fit for Bridgette. As the icing on the cake, their global rotation had just been refined to include Bridgette’s most beloved city in the world–Tokyo!
The first part of the application process included the usual elements–transcripts, extracurricular activities, and recommendation letters. They were test blind and did not require a personal essay. Instead, the second part of the application included a series of timed IQ and EQ questions applicants had to do in real time, without any preparation at all. This included math, essay writing, video interview, and questions to test your creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving skills.
Bridgette completed all her college applications, including the one for Minerva, by January. As much as our hearts had a preference for one over the others, we also knew the odds were well stacked against us for Minerva, and we felt at peace to leave the outcome to God. We continued going through the process of getting her student visa to move to Japan if that was the path she’d take. While looking at language schools and apartments in Japan during the month of January, Bridgette received an email from the Admissions Director at Minerva requesting an interview, which got us excited, hopeful, and nervous at the same time. She had the interview in early February, and on February 24th, she woke up to an official acceptance letter from Minerva!
We were truly thrilled for her, and praised God for leading her to this “Plan C”, which wasn’t even on our radar until just a couple of months ago. In the end, Bridgette was accepted to about half of universities that she applied to, and was even offered a generous merit-based scholarship for one of them, so God did open more than one door for her. But after months and months of prayer leading up to these acceptance letters, we all felt a strong conviction that the Minerva door was the one meant for her.
In March, we attended the Minerva Admitted Students day and it got us even more excited for Bridgette’s journey with them. We loved the faculty members that we met and we learned a ton about the university from current students and alumni. The current global rotation includes San Francisco, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Hydrabad, Berlin and Buenos Aires. Bridgette’s first year will be in San Francisco (yay for me!!!), second year in Tokyo (yay for me as well, lol!!) and potentially Hydrabad. Third and fourth year rotations are still TBD amongst the other countries. She will live in the Minerva residence halls in each location with her cohort of about 150 students in her class.
As I conclude this (long) post reflecting on Bridgette’s educational journey in the last decade, I hope to encourage those who took the time to read this far to realize that there is never just one path in life. It’s so easy to get caught up on what everyone else is doing, thinking that’s the only way, especially when it comes to our children. If I had to do just one single takeaway from this whole journey, it is to really see our children for who they are. Not who we hope for them to be. Not who they are compared to other people, but to really see them, holistically, for the person they were uniquely designed to be. Yes, as parents we certainly have the responsibility to help shape them, influence them, and to guide them well. But, we just have to be careful of our own underlying intentions– is it to prove something to others? Is it to fulfill our own unfulfilled dreams? Is it out of fear? Is it out of pride? Personally, I believe that some of the most long lasting and sustainable gifts we can give to our kids are completely intangible. It is the gift of being unconditionally loved and accepted as they are, and the gift of feeling valued and cherished based on their character instead of accomplishments. It is the gift of our trust in them as capable human beings, that they can and will spread their own wings and fly as they are meant to be, that they can and will get back up when they fail, that they can and will forge their own paths. As Alan and I look back at our own parenting journey with Bridgette for the last 18 years, we recognize and own up to our mistakes, failures, and stumbles, but we also recognize and appreciate how those very mistakes, failures and stumbles have humbled us and taught us incomparable life lessons. Being a parent continues to be the hardest and yet the most rewarding role as we prepare to move into the next season as parents to a young adult. Wow, yet another new learning curve ahead!
We are immensely grateful that God gave us courage to take the road less traveled for Bridgette’s education and upbringing. 10 years ago, we leaped into the unknown, trusting that the risk was worth taking, and it has brought us more blessings than we ever could have imagined. And so…she continues taking the road less traveled. Most people have not heard of Minerva. Some are skeptical of its infancy in the education realm. She could have chosen a safer route to go with a university that has a longstanding reputation and established teaching methods. But, just like 10 years ago, she decided that it’s worth exploring the road less traveled, to pursue a form of higher education that she believes in. Let’s see where this path will lead her next?
