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What is it like to spend high school in a rigorous online education? Get to know Wendy Swem, Veritas Scholars Academy’s 2022-2023 class Valedictorian and hear about her experience at VSA first-hand! Discover how Rhetoric classes can turn a shy student into an eloquent public speaker, how studying history and literature through VSA’s Omnibus class can prepare students for the future, and how spending high school in a classical Christian environment can both strengthen and challenge students as they go forward to impact the culture for Christ.

Episode Transcription

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

Marlin Detweiler:

Welcome again. This is Veritas Vox, the voice of classical Christian education. I'm Marlin Detweiler. And today we have with us Wendy Swem. Wendy has just been notified in the last few days that she is the valedictorian of our online school for the 2022-2023 school year. Wendy, welcome.

Wendy Swem:

Thank you. It's such an honor to be here.

Marlin Detweiler:

Well, we're happy to hear a bit about your story. This tape will be released a few days before you graduate. So hopefully nothing will get in the way of your graduating and it won't be for not. I don't expect that. Give us a little background on you and your family and that sort of thing.

Wendy Swem:

Yeah. So I grew up overseas in Shanghai, China. My parents worked over there with classical education as missionaries. And my ninth-grade year, we ended up coming over here for a short vacation and ended up staying here because of COVID. Home is now Greensboro.

When we moved back here, my parents were trying to decide what to do about my education because my education in Shanghai was at a classical Christian school that they had helped start, and they wanted me to continue pursuing a classical Christian education while we were here. And they had previously worked with Veritas. The school in China used certain Veritas curricula, such as the Omnibus curriculum and things like that. And so it felt like a very smooth transition into just doing Veritas full-time once we moved here. So yeah.

Marlin Detweiler:

I have known your parents and worked with them directly. This is I think I may have met you briefly, but this is our first time really chatting. So this is exciting. And I have been really looking forward to doing this. So is it fair to say then, that you've been taking classes and been part of the diploma program for four years?

Wendy Swem:

Yes, I've been part of the official Diploma program for four years now. I did take the self-paced Omnibus courses before that.

Marlin Detweiler:

When you were in China?

Wendy Swem:

Yes.

Marlin Detweiler:

Very good. Okay. Now, being the valedictorian is a very significant thing to me because I was never the valedictorian at my school. What does it mean to you?

Wendy Swem:

I think that it has been just such an honor to be selected as the valedictorian. And I think that the number of students at Veritas that excel and are so intelligent is so it's such a big number that I'm just honored to have been able to have the opportunity to be chosen as valedictorian.

Marlin Detweiler:

Yeah, it really is exciting. And we have had some very talented people accomplish that. Well, have that accomplishment or be awarded the valedictorian. But it was something that you really earned. And congratulations are in order for that. Way to go.

Wendy Swem:

Thank you.

Marlin Detweiler:

What advice or insights might we expect from you as you speak and give the valedictorian address at graduation? Don't give away too much of the talk though – we want people to come or listen online!

Wendy Swem:

Right. Yeah. So I guess a bit of a teaser is I will be speaking on perseverance because I think especially through the years of COVID and in recent years, there's been a lot of hardship that has befallen a lot of the students at Veritas. And it's really a struggle to be able to work through the Veritas program. It's very rigorous, which is very rewarding.

But at the same time, it is something that's difficult. And so I thought that my speech, if it reflected that value of perseverance kind of through difficulty and the reward that we have earned at the end of her high school career and also how we can see Christ through our path to this point. So yeah, I guess that's just a little bit of a teaser.

Marlin Detweiler:

Very good. Do you know who the salutatorian is?

Wendy Swem:

I was not notified who it was.

Marlin Detweiler:

I don't know either. I think I learned of your being the valedictorian, partly because the people that would first know knew your parents. And so I got a little bit of a heads up that I don't normally get either. I normally let it be a surprise for me, too. Tell us more about your education at Veritas. Let's start with something pretty simple and basic. What classes did you enjoy most?

Wendy Swem:

Yeah, so I would say the classes that I enjoyed most were the rhetoric classes. I think I was very, very shy growing up, and I'm still pretty shy. But I think that through the rhetoric at Veritas, the program that they kind of put you through and the courses that you have to take with logic first, kind of giving you kind of the groundwork behind how to speak well and then to really pursue rhetoric for three years with RhetoricI, Rhetoric II, and then Senior Thesis.

I think it's helped me to or it's equipped me to speak more eloquently and also more confidently. And it also has really helped me in preparation for speaking. And for example, in the program, you pretty much write a short speech once a week. It's not long. 5 minutes to 10 minutes.

Marlin Detweiler:

I would assume.

Wendy Swem:

Yeah. Rhetoric I is a little different. Rhetoric I is almost preparing you kind of for Rhetoric II and I think that's a helpful skill to have in the future just because you never know when you're going to have to stand up and speak. And they teach you to speak kind of on your feet and just, you know, be able to almost speak without preparation or very little preparation. So, yeah, I've really enjoyed those classes too.

Marlin Detweiler:

It is not unusual for high school students to be a bit bashful, and a bit shy. Can you kind of – do you remember where you were obviously in the middle of it, so it might be that you were experiencing and be more easily answered by somebody observing you like your parents– But how would you define the progression of coming out of a shyness shell into being confident and comfortable like you are in front of the camera?

Like, I expect you will be in front of an audience of, I don't know, a thousand or so is probably won't be quite that big, but it’s a pretty good-sized audience at graduation.

Wendy Swem:

Yeah. So I think the first thing I would like to kind of point out is that in the rhetoric program, you're never directly standing up in front of a crowd of people in person. It is all online, the camera, and it's still incredibly – you get nervous, I want to say you do get nervous the first couple of times that you're speaking to that particular class and teacher.

And I feel like personally, for me at the beginning of Rhetoric I, I especially that first speech that I ever gave, I was incredibly nervous and I think also the fact that I had felt prepared, but I also felt underprepared in the sense that I'd hardly ever stood up and given a speech before. I did debate very, very briefly in eighth grade.

Wendy Swem:

But still, that's not quite the same, and you have months and months and months of preparation to stand up and present for a minute or 2 minutes at a time, whereas this was preparing to give a speech. And in standing up and having to present it well in front of a group of people that you didn't know and things like that.

And so I think in that first rhetoric, one class I was incredibly nervous and really did not even feel like I wanted to give the speech. And I feel like throughout the year, not only because you're giving a speech, I believe in Rhetoric I, it’s every other week or every three weeks or something like that. And I think with that repetition and just the thought that it is scheduled, it is repetitive and you know when it's going to happen.

And I think that those baby steps really helped to kind of crack open the shell a little bit and help me to get out, because I did notice that throughout the year I felt when I was speaking that I was speaking better, I was speaking clearer, slower, things like that that just come with practice. And I think that is something that's great about the Rhetoric approach because, by the time you get to Rhetoric II, you have that basic understanding of giving a speech that's all written.

Wendy Swem:

And then Rhetoric II is where they really kind of dive into the pretty much just on-the-spot speaking. Or you give a speech every week and pretty much every week and Rhetoric II, and just you're challenged more in what you're saying because they feel like you already have that basis or kind of the baseline of how to say it.

And then in Rhetoric II, we're teaching you how to phrase your speeches more eloquently or phrase them in a way that's more persuasive and so I feel like in that sense, as I progressed through Rhetoric II, I not only felt more confident in my speaking for a murder one, but I also felt like what I was saying was better phrased, and I was saying it in a way that made people able to understand me better. So yeah, at least that's my understanding of kind of how it all unfolded.

Marlin Detweiler:

That's wonderful. So the very nature of its being a fixed time and place and the frequency of it helped you go from shyness to confidence in speaking and speaking out, so to speak, articulate what you think of putting together an argument or a persuasive talk has happened over two years in a very substantial way.

Wendy Swem:

Yeah.

Marlin Detweiler:

Do you see that in classmates also were there students in your Rhetoric I that were also in your Rhetoric II and you're able to see them progress the whole way through?

Wendy Swem:

I can't think of any that I saw in Rhetoric I and Rhetoric II, but I could definitely tell at least in Rhetoric I from the start of the year to the end of the year, there was a huge difference, and I'd say 96% of the class, pretty much the majority of the class, was speaking in a much more confident way by the end of the year.

Marlin Detweiler:

That's wonderful. Okay, let's ask a little bit more. Speak your mind here a little bit more. Which courses did you find most challenging or maybe ones you didn't care for as much?

Wendy Swem:

Well, I would say there's hardly ever been a class in my four years that I would say I didn't really care for.

Marlin Detweiler:

You’re too kind!

Wendy Swem:

But yeah, this past year I ended up having to take two science classes in one year, which was a struggle and I have never been one for chemistry and I think that's something that's kind of shared by a lot of people. I think is this not an inherent dislike of chemistry, but the acknowledgment that it's definitely a struggle and it's not my favorite class and I had to take organic chemistry, which was even a step further kind of in that end of difficulty with chemistry.

But I loved my teacher. She was Dr. Gothard, and she was just excellent at kind of understanding that this is difficult and she was amazing at walking us through everything. And this is why I wouldn't say I disliked it, but it was definitely one of the more classes that challenged me.

Marlin Detweiler:

Very good. Tell me if you were talking to a friend down the street, what would you recommend that you got out of your education? What would you say to them in terms of they're asking you, “Hey, tell us about this. Would this be good for us? Would this be good for me?” How would you answer them?

Wendy Swem:

Yeah. So I think that their education at Veritas is certainly not for the faint of heart. And so I would first start off by saying it's very rigorous and that rigor pays off. I feel like in the four years of the diploma program, kind of the high school year and a diploma program definitely helped me to not only be more confident in my faith because the entirety of the curriculum is looking at the world through the lens of Scripture in all the areas in math, science and world view.

And speaking of worldview, it's helped me shape my own worldview around a biblical perspective on the world. And I guess that is another thing I would tell them about it is that it is very biblically focused and I think that that's a wonderful thing. So I feel like those would be the main two things I would say to just kind of start it out and then I would also kind of talk to them how Veritas is like a checklist.

And I think it's super helpful in that they ensure that you've taken all of the courses that you need to before you take a class. So for example, they wouldn't just stick you in Rhetoric II, without having you have taken Rhetoric I or another logic course. And they wouldn't stick you in Senior Thesis without you having some sort of rhetorical background and things like that I think they set you up for success in your college career and your high school career.

They help you get through high school and exceed and excel and then they prepare you for college, which is another thing that I would tell them is the scheduling, the class size, and the not necessarily class size, but kind of the relationship you have with your professor and the assignments and the exams and the tests are all very similar to what you would find at college. So I feel extremely prepared to go off to college. And so that's something that I would share with them about Veritas.

Marlin Detweiler:

Now, in none of this have you mentioned our great books curriculum, the Omnibus curriculum. How did you find that? What did you learn from it? What did you enjoy? What did you not enjoy?

Wendy Swem:

Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed Omnibus. I think it's equipped me to think a lot better. And also throughout learning it, you see history repeat itself, which I think is such a valuable skill to have is the ability to note what is going on in the current day and be able to make connections to something that's happened in the past that is a similar circumstance or not necessarily the same thing, but being able to locate similarities and then understand that the consequences of that are going to be very similar.

So yeah, and I think that's a big thing. And Omnibus is reading all these books and again, Omnibus one through three you walk through from the early times until modern, and then in four, five and six you do the same thing. You go back to early times and read all the way to modern again. And I think having that helps a lot because one through three is the base for four through six and in four through six you read more advanced literature of course, because in Omnibus 1 you're in seventh grade Omnibus 4 you're in, I believe 10th grade. And so you're reading a lot more advanced literature, but at the same time, you already have this background kind of in the area. You kind of have set yourself up to read these books that are a bit more challenging.

So yeah, and I think that in Omnibus with reading all these books, I'm not saying that we may have a Fahrenheit 451 type of future where people are burning all of these books, but we've already seen some things like that with banned books.

Marlin Detweiler:

The dependence on entertainment as opposed to more substantial lives.

Wendy Swem:

Yeah. And just being able to have the opportunity to read all of these books that I think kids or students in public school don't read most of these books. Just I think that that's such a great opportunity to also have a teacher that understands the concepts in these books and can explain them to you.

Marlin Detweiler:

Do you have a favorite time period for literature and history studies?

Wendy Swem:

I have always loved the medieval times, but so I guess Omnibus two and then Omnibus five. However, this past year, in Omnibus six, which is modern times, I've enjoyed reading some of the books that are more dystopian or kind of near-future books that are kind of talking about the potential future.

Marlin Detweiler:

It's an interesting observation that you enjoyed that because really in the last few years during the time periods you've been in high school, we have seen A.I. – automated intelligence – become far more of a thing. In the main, it's been in the background and now it's coming out as a thing and there's a dystopian element to it that's it's now facing a real reality for us and I imagine that helped you there provided some, some real-world connection to what you were reading that was written a few years ago, sometimes many years ago, and talking about things that are becoming real now.

Wendy Swem:

Yeah, definitely.

Marlin Detweiler:

So what are your plans next year?

Wendy Swem:

Yes, So I am very excited to be attending Hillsdale College in the fall and I plan to major in biochemistry, even though I know earlier I said chemistry is not my favorite, but I feel like biochem is going to be a great thing because I want to go into the medical field and so you can't get around it there.

And I do like to be challenged. And so I think that's going to be something that I hopefully can kind of get through and enjoy. But yeah, so that's kind of my plan for the fall.

Marlin Detweiler:

If you could write your ticket, what aspect of the medical field would you hope to be able to go into?

Wendy Swem:

Yeah, I originally considered surgery.

Marlin Detweiler:

A doctor first. Okay.

Wendy Swem:

Yeah. So like a doctor, but more recently I've been a lot more interested in either the research area or I enjoyed physics and I took physics one and two. And so some way that those two can kind of combine maybe biotechnology or kind of like biotech research, something like that, that can kind of be on the engineering side of things.

I don't know. I also don't know how much the medical field will progress in the four years until I graduate college, So I'm not sure if that will be more of a field in four years or not. But yeah, those are pretty much the fields. It's either just kind of doctor or kind of in this research kind of area.

Marlin Detweiler:

What was the college that you said you're attending in the fall?

Wendy Swem:

Hillsdale.

Marlin Detweiler:

Hillsdale. Okay. So you'll be a good distance from Greensboro where you've been living. Do you have any sense of where you might land when you finish college? I guess I can be dependent on a lot of things, but what's your thinking when I say where you might land?

Wendy Swem:

So when I finish college, I guess depending on what I decide to do, I'd probably go to med school, so I guess I'd live depending on there. But after that even I would love to do missions work in the medical field for perhaps post-med school or pre-med school just for a year or so to maybe kind of get out into the world before entering into kind of the very structured and very kind of controlled medical field, at least in the US.

Wendy Swem:

I would love to live internationally. So if any medical missions if I'm on, if I'm out there, and realizes what I want to do, then I'd probably stay out there and live internationally doing medical missions. So yeah.

Marlin Detweiler:

Does that likely mean China?

Wendy Swem:

Perhaps!

Marlin Detweiler:
How’s your Mandarin?

Wendy Swem:
Oh well, my dad makes sure that I keep up with it. So yeah.

Marlin Detweiler:

I have always found that interesting, and this is a, I guess politically incorrect bias, but I've always found it interesting when with your dad to watch that American-looking guy speaking Mandarin. It just always catches me off guard a little bit until we get into a conversation. And obviously, the only reason he would do it is that there's someone else with us whose primary language is Mandarin as a way of bridging communication gaps and things like that. But it's always been a little startling. Like, I bet I'd be startled to hear you speak Mandarin as well.

Wendy Swem:

Yeah, my Mandarin is definitely not as good as my dad's. My dad excels in that area of communication, but he keeps us on our toes with keeping up with speaking it and things like that.

Marlin Detweiler:

Oh that’s great. So I have one last question for you. Actually, I don't, I have a couple. How would you say your experience, not the fact that you came back to the States, although that was a change in variables at the same time you stepped into Veritas. But if you can isolate on Veritas, how would you say it has affected your relationship with Christ, your experience with Veritas? How has it helped you grow in Christ?

Wendy Swem:

Yes. So I think the fact that I spent my entire high school years looking at the world through the lens of scripture, and I think just that simple fact has helped so much in the development of my faith because I've known a lot of people that I'm friends with outside of school who have kind of fallen out of their faith because of public school or going to a kind of hostile environment – hostile towards Christians.

And so I think the fact that I had the opportunity to be surrounded by people that supported my faith and also were believing similar things to me, but at the same time being able to talk to people about it, to have my faith challenged a bit and also understand how to defend it and things like that. Again, reading books in Omnibus about an almost dystopian future, and you can put Christianity in that in the sense of that persecution with Christianity and futures.

I mean, it's happening now and so I think learning about that and understanding that someday you're going to have to stand up and defend your faith has really strengthened me in Christ.

Marlin Detweiler:

That's that is wonderful. What do you like to do for fun?

Wendy Swem:

Well, apart from that school and stuff, I spend a lot of time with my family. Being homeschooled gives me the opportunity. I have five younger siblings, so I'm the oldest of quite the horde of children, but I really, really enjoy baking and cooking for them. And it's so fun to just see them kind of enjoy everything that I make.

So that's one of my hobbies. I also thoroughly enjoy reading Omnibus books and also other books. I enjoy Jane Austen and other authors like that. I mean, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are classics at Veritas, so I love pursuing reading a lot of literature. And so those are my two main hobbies. But I also paint when I have time, I paint and two mediums, oil and watercolor. So I enjoy that as well. And it is a bit difficult to kind of find time to do that, but I love to kind of take a Saturday or so and just kind of work on a piece. So yeah those are kind of the main things that I do for fun.

Marlin Detweiler:

But living in Greensboro for several years, you haven't been too far from the mountains and just a little bit further to the beach, which one do you prefer?

Wendy Swem:

Oh, I'm going to have to say the beach. I love the mountains, but maybe it's because we spend more time up in the mountains. We go every summer up to the mountains and we do go to the beach. But I always feel like there's never quite enough time when we're at the beach to kind of enjoy it as thoroughly as I want. So yeah, I'd have to say the beach, but it's definitely a close race.

Marlin Detweiler:

Very good. Well, thank you so much, Wendy. It's been great talking to you folks. Wendy Swem is the valedictorian for the 2022-23 school year for Veritas Scholars Academy. She will be speaking and you can hear the live stream of her speaking in the graduation service, which I believe is on Friday, June 2nd at 10:00am ET and we hope you'll tune in. Wendy, thank you so much for joining us.

Wendy Swem:

Thank you so much for having me.

Marlin Detweiler:

Folks, you have been listening to Veritas Vox, the voice of Christian Education. We'll plan to see you next time.