News : Area Homeschool Students Celebrated at Graduation

Vinton-Shellsburg and Benton Community held a graduation ceremony for the graduating seniors in the Class of 2023. Those celebrated included the following students:

Nash Arbuckle

Lord Boone Alexander Asher*

Nicolas Baysinger

Caleb Brown

Grace Brown

Leah Brown

Nichole Elizabeth Brunssen

William Angus Buchanan IV*

Caleb Weston Franck

Danica Gossett

Veronica Lynn Judas

Raegan Junge

Joseph Koopman

Kaden Wallace

*Denotes graduating with honors

The class was welcomed by Mrs. Kayla Squires, the program's Home School Assistance Program (HSAP) Director. Kyle Koeppen, Vinton-Shellsburg Superintendent also shared remarks with those gathered.

June McElwee shared the following poem:

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This year the parents recognized in the Golden Graduation, (25 years in homeschool education) were:

Jason and Sarah Asher and Eric & Phyllis Judas