Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify | Watch the Video

There is no denying it: a classical Christian education is an incredibly beneficial thing for students. But where does that leave families who can’t afford to pay for both government school taxes and the cost of giving their child a better education? Emlianna King, a Diploma student at Veritas Scholars Academy, is here to tell you how VSA students are raising funds so that they can share the beauty of a classical education with more families!

Episode Transcription

Note: This transcription may vary from the words used in the original episode for better readability.

Marlin Detweiler:

Hello again. You've joined us for another episode of Veritas Vox, the voice of classical Christian education. Today we have with us one of the students in our online school, Veritas Scholars Academy, and I will describe why she's here in just a moment. But first, let me welcome Emlianna King. And did I say the name, right?

Emlianna King:

Emlianna.

Marlin Detweiler:

Emlianna, I am still struggling with it. Good. Emlianna. And if I say it wrong again, don't be at all bashful and correcting me. Emlianna, tell us how long you have been associated with Veritas.

Emlianna King:

So I've been at Veritas essentially my whole life. I started the curriculum –

Marlin Detweiler:

You started when you were zero?!

Emlianna King:

I started the curriculum in first grade, but then I went to online classes in third grade, and now I'm a full-time diploma student.

Marlin Detweiler:

Okay. And what year are you in school?

Emlianna King:

I'm in 11th grade.

Marlin Detweiler:

You're 11th grade. And I know you live in Saint Augustine, Florida. Tell us about your family.

Emlianna King:

So my mother actually is a Veritas teacher. She teaches composition and fiction writing over the summer. So she's wonderful. And my father is retired, but he's also around and I do not have any siblings. Actually, I'm an only child, so that pretty much is the extent of my family. However, I have a lovely dog that I like to consider family.

Marlin Detweiler:

That's great. Now, Saint Augustine, many people who might be listening to this don't know much about it. I happened to have been there as a tourist and stayed there. In fact, I was there earlier this week or near there. But Saint Augustine is a really cool place for people to visit. What are some of your favorite things about the historic area?

Emlianna King:

Wow. Honestly, so much. I first and foremost love its location to the beach. The ocean is really close, so that's always nice. And it is the oldest town in America.

Marlin Detweiler:

To think that the oldest town America is in Florida, not New England. Yeah. Or in Virginia. Jamestown is something that surprises people!

Emlianna King:

Yeah. And it was it was settled by the Spanish. So we still have a lot of Spanish influence here. And I think that culture is really fun.

Marlin Detweiler:

Yeah, it's a neat town. And if those listening haven't visited, I would put it on the list of places to visit. It is really fun. Well, I'm having you as my guest here today because there's something very timely going on at the online school of Veritas Scholars Academy. And it's the idea of $15,000 in 15 days. Tell us what that is.

Emlianna King:

So the $15k in 15 days is a campaign. It's a partnership between the VSATAD, which is the Veritas Scholars Academy, Teacher Appreciation Day Project with Paideia, the Scholarship Foundation. And essentially what it's about is raising $15,000 in 15 days, and that money goes to families who really want to attend Veritas but currently are financially unable.

So that could be, you know, one Veritas student to Veritas students. But last year, we actually helped dozens of families be able to come to Veritas with that money. So we're trying to do that again this year.

Marlin Detweiler:

Very good. How much was raised last year?

Emlianna King:

Last year, the exact donation count was $24,824, I believe.

Marlin Detweiler:

Wow! So I guess you'd have to say $15,000 is a starting point. And you're hoping for a whole lot more. If you almost had $25,000 last year.

Emlianna King:

Yes, sir.

Marlin Detweiler:

It's phenomenal to see you as part of the group of students taking this on and showing your care for those that have financial needs but really want to be part of the school and part of the Veritas community. Why would you say this has become such a significant thing? Why do you do it?

Emlianna King:

I think for me, my mother, being a teacher, has always stressed the importance of education. Currently, she is actually receiving her Ph.D. online from Liberty University and is focusing on the state of education, I guess, currently in our society. And I think for me, I realize how important Veritas teachers have been in my life and everything that the school has given me and really learning from a biblical worldview, how that has helped shape my life and helped grow me as a person.

And I think whenever I look at other people and I see people that don't have that opportunity, it kind of saddens me because I think everybody should have some exposure to that and be able to understand things from a Christlike perspective. And I think that's something that Veritas does, and I think that's important.

Marlin Detweiler:

Yeah, it's always been a challenge for Laurie, my wife, and me, to think about how we can be helpful and have this kind of make this education available to people who can't afford it. Today we see, you know, there are a lot of people that really would like to but are financially unable. They're already paying property taxes and other taxes that go to paying for education once, and then to pay for it again in a private education.

To pay for education twice can be real burdensome to people. And this kind of an effort is a little something to go a long way in helping some people. What's interesting to me is to see how our state organizations, this is true of Florida, where you live, that have passed laws that help people financially and they're doing it because it's cheaper for them to provide money to families, to homeschool or to go to a private school than it is to educate them on a public school.

So it's a savings for the state and it does make funds available for some people in some states. But as we speak, that's only in about 12 states right now and we expect to see more of them. But these kinds of funds are available for people who don't live in a state like that. Or don't for some other reason have availability for that.

Do you have any specific stories of how people have been blessed? Do you have any notes that you've seen or conversations that you've been a part of where you've been able to say this is a very specific example of the blessing that these gifts have provided?

Emlianna King:

As far as last year, I don't know of a specific family that has come to Veritas personally, but I know I have I've talked with a lot of people that have joined the school in the past few years, especially over like the COVID period whenever everybody was going online and I know that there have been a lot of of my friends that have come in the past few years that have really taught me about the differences between, you know, Veritas and what they went through in the public school system.

Because I've been I've never felt my whole life. I've never experienced anything else but hearing stories like, you know, we'll be walking in the halls and there's a fight going on in school, right. And like, that's just that's normal. And then you come to Veritas and you don't have any animosity, you don't have anything like that. You just have community. And everybody wants to help each other and be with each other.

Marlin Detweiler:

And you certainly don't have fights in the halls!

Emlianna King:

Right?! I mean, you kind of eliminate that problem.

Marlin Detweiler:

I love hearing stories of the blessing of being part of a Christian community as a part of being a part of the online school. I'm going to go a little different direction here for just a moment because you kind of touched on it. But tell us about how you see community being built at Veritas in spite of the fact that the school is online and you actually attend from your home?

Emlianna King:

Yeah. So I think a great example is that this morning, like 7:30 a.m., I received an email for Schoology from my biology teacher from two years ago, Mrs. Sam, and she was just reaching out and said, “Hi, Emmy, I've been thinking of you. How are you doing?” And it just really touched me.

And I was like, wow, after two years, like, she's remembering me and she's thinking about me. And I have that relationship with a lot of my teachers. A lot of us stay in touch. And some of them you can go back and take classes with the next year and the year after, depending on what they teach, which I think is really great as well.

Aside from the teachers, I think the students, if you're in the Diploma Program, you have Student Connections, which is just everybody in your specific grade who can, you know, talk on the platform or have meetings together. And I think that's really helped me get to know my classmates.

Marlin Detweiler:

Yeah. Now, as somebody that has never been a part of the organization or seen how things can really operate is still going to have the question, “Can you really build community in an online world?” How would you answer them?

Emlianna King:

I would say yes, and I am the perfect example of this because my best friend, Ruthanne Cornette, I met her in third grade and we actually fly back and forth to see each other. She lives in Virginia.

Marlin Detweiler:

Okay. So you go visit her, she comes and visits you, and you met online. Do you think that's a common experience for Veritas students?

Emlianna King:

I do actually think it's becoming increasingly common, especially as students get older. People, you know, they want to meet up and they want to see each other. And I think there's a lot of opportunity to do that.

Marlin Detweiler:

Yeah. Have you been able to be part of the end of your gathering?

Emlianna King:

I have the past two years.

Marlin Detweiler:

How much would you say that contributes to the building of community to have some time that we might call in-person and face time that allows us to get to know somebody in a way that is different than just on a screen?

Emlianna King:

I think it's a great opportunity. I know whenever I met them in person the first time, it was like one of the happiest days of my life. I was just like, “Wow.” Like, you're really standing here and I got to interact with a lot of people. And I think having events like the the dance at EOYG or watching graduation, those things really make you feel like you're part of something bigger and and you really are in community with all of these people.

Marlin Detweiler:

Yeah. One of the things as we started offering online classes and I think we're in our 19th year of doing that now, one of the things that I didn't anticipate, I knew that technology would continue to improve and we'd see ways that online classes would get better and better, and that's been the case. But the thing that I didn't see coming was how significant it was to have students from all over the country, in fact, all over the world, be in one classroom having discussions about various things.

How have you seen that affect your education to be able to learn from kids or hear from kids in different cultures or even different countries?

Emlianna King:

I think hearing from people in different life situations and in different circumstances has really made me a lot more open-minded in general. I think when you live in the same place and you do the same thing every day, you can kind of see things in a black or white. But when you talk to people from Greece or from Africa, I've had teachers in different countries, too.

It's really eye opening, I guess, different ways that people view the world and different things that go on that we never know about. And I think it really helps get a well-rounded perspective and a broad perspective because you don't just focus at Veritas on what happens in America, but you focus on what happens all over the world and how that affects our relationship with one another and how that affects our relationship with Christ.

Marlin Detweiler:

Yeah, that's that's really good. Well, let's get back to the subject here as we bring things to a close. So if you hit your goal or exceed your goal like you did last year, what outcomes do you think? What? Well, what will be realized? It's somewhat obvious in some sense, but what is as you do this, what makes you really motivated to be successful?

Emlianna King:

I think what makes me motivated is seeing the effect that it's had on the lives of everybody who has come to Veritas. I think people really are changed whenever they meet that one faculty member that really just hits home with them and that they really bond with. I think that's an experience that everybody should have in their life and I think that there are a lot of people that haven’t.

And whenever I hear stories about, “Oh my goodness, my teacher did this for me”, “Oh my goodness this thing happened in class”, I'm just like, yes, like, this is why we're here. This is why we're doing what we're doing. And I really hope that we're able to provide this education to more people and have more people come to community with us.

Marlin Detweiler:

Yeah hearing your story and many, many stories like yours, it really is a joy. It helps me get up in the morning to hear how much kids – you – love school, love the relationships you're building. And I've often said that teachers are the most important part of education and being able to select teachers without geographic limitations, as we're able to do at Veritas gives us the opportunity for developing a world-class community of teachers.

And I think we've done that. And it's wonderful to hear you talk about how much of a blessing the teachers have been for you. So how can somebody who wants to contribute to this campaign do so? How do how do you encourage donations?

Emlianna King:

Yeah, So we have a link on our website where you can donate. It's just https://www.vsatad.com/

Marlin Detweiler:

So, starting at https://www.vsatad.com/ is where you go and then it's pretty obvious where to go from there?

Emlianna King:

Yes it’s just donate and then there's donation amounts like $5, $10. You can just click on whatever you feel called to give.

Marlin Detweiler:

Okay. Very good. So giving is through https://www.vsatad.com/ The money is given to Paideia Scholarship Foundation which makes it tax deductible. And here we are at year-end when people are thinking maybe most about giving benevolently. And so I want you to maybe tell people what your greatest hope is in this giving. You have a stated goal of $15k in 15 days, but last year you came close to $25,000. What would make you say we blew the suck, we blew the doors out?

Emlianna King:

I think I don't know if it's an exact number, but I think more so the number of people you know, we don't need each one of us to do $50,000 total. But if every single person just did $5, we would we would have more than enough.

Marlin Detweiler:

Yeah. Well, that's having a large participation percentage of people that are connected to the school is a wonderful thing and it's always a good thing to have broad participation. But there are people that can give significant gifts too, and I hope that your efforts will cause them to do that. So thank you very much, Emlianna.

Emlianna King:

Emlianna.

Marlin Detweiler:

Emlianna. I am having such a hard time.

Emlianna King:

You're okay.

Marlin Detweiler:

Do a lot of people have a hard time with your name?

Emlianna King:

Yes. 100%.

Marlin Detweiler:

Well, I'm glad to know I'm not alone, but thank you so much for what you're doing to help people get the kind of education that they want when they can't afford it. Thank you for your kind words about your experience here. It is so exciting to see what God is doing in preparing the next generation. And you're right there in the middle of it. Thanks.

Emlianna King:

Thank you.

Marlin Detweiler:

Folks. Thanks for joining us For Veritas Vox, the voice of classical Christian education with Emlianna and the efforts to raise money for people who can use some help in being able to be part of our community. Until next time, we will see you soon.