CollegePlus! Student Swims Ahead

Tucson - A full moon hovered in the inky sky above the jutting peaks of the Catalina Mountains. In the shadows of the mountains is the swimming pool where Melanie Paulsen and her team practice. Their neon green swim caps bob up and down in the clear blue water as they breathe rhythmically, perfecting their freestyle strokes. They’ve been practicing for over ninety minutes. Most of them will go home to homework for their high school classes. But Melanie is different. She will be going home to study for her college coursework with CollegePlus!

She’s not in a special college preparatory school. She wouldn’t even describe herself as extraordinary. But she’s not normal, she’s a homeschool success story in the making. Melanie will be going off to graduate school at the same time most of her peers will be starting their freshman year of college.

“She’s been willing to do things that most kids of her age are maybe not willing to do. She’s willing to apply herself,” says her swimming coach, Justin Slade. “When I found out that Melanie was actually taking college classes while in her high-school age years, I was pretty amazed. Being a student athlete myself in college, I know what it takes to try to put those two things together and both be a student and an athlete at that level. To hear that she’s able to do that at 16 and 17 years old is really amazing.”

Ask a group of people to describe Melanie and one of the words that will keep coming up is determined. The young 17-old homeschooler isn’t afraid of doing what it takes to succeed, even if that means lots of time. She was six when she started swimming, twelve when she started swimming year-round on a club.

“I scraped the top of my head bald learning to do the dolphin kick.” She laughed at the memory, reaching a hand up to touch her white-blonde hair. “I was really young, maybe nine, and of course it was on the one day that my mom left the pool.”

The accident didn’t deter her from swimming. If anything, if solidified her future as an athlete willing to pay the price for her sport.

“It takes me fifty minutes to get to practice,” she said, navigating her tiny white Miata through traffic. “My teammates think I’m crazy but it’s worth it. I do more with my life than just swim. It takes up quite a bit of my time but I have boundaries.”

Personal Boundaries

Boundaries are something that her family has worked hard to keep.

“Like with any sport, swimming takes up time,” her mother, Tracy says. She homeschools both of her children and has worked her life around them. “There are kids whose lives completely revolve around swimming. But we want to make sure Melanie has a balance. So we don’t compete on Sundays, we don’t do daily doubles - she’d be spending eight hours a week in the pool. It has gotten tougher as she’s become a more serious swimmer but we just make sure that the coaches are aware of where we stand as a family.”

Tracy, an engineer by training, makes sure that the family runs smoothly. She runs an infant water survival classes every morning in the backyard. Inside, Melanie and her younger brother Matthew, have a daily schedule that they reference to keep themselves on track with their homeschooling. Matthew is working on regular coursework while Melanie plows through CollegePlus! The schedule is broken down to half-hour increments and is stuck to the side of the refrigerator. Melanie swims at last two hours every day and studies about six hours. She’s strict about her bedtime and somewhat strict about her diet. There is also a sticky note on the bathroom ceiling with “gullible” written on it. The Paulsen’s are a homeschooling family that loves to have a good time.

A Good Fit?

Melanie heard about CollegePlus! at a homeschooling convention. She was intrigued by the concept but initially didn’t think that it would be a good fit for her.

“After homeschooling, we thought it might crimp our style,” Tracy admitted. “With swimming we travel quite a bit. We weren’t sure if we could add another thing to our plate. But it has worked really well. We can take it on the road with us.”

“CollegePlus! is a 100% fit into my lifestyle,” Melanie says. “It works around my schedule.”

A year into the program and Melanie is already halfway through her college degree in Natural Science and Mathematics with CollegePlus!. But surprisingly, she’s not a math person.

“I would have majored in Biology but it required more math,” she said ruefully. “I want to be a teacher but all the teachers I’ve talked to have said not to get my bachelors in education. It’s just a lot of busy-work and kind of a waste of time. So through CollegePlus! I’m getting my degree in Natural Science and Mathematics because it’s one of my passions.”

Focusing on the Future

Melanie is taking a hard path toward her goal. In the coming months, she’ll be taking a grueling course load including: Pathophysiology, Genetics and Reproduction, and a class on Genetic Engineering of Produce in the Human Diet. She’s currently working on Physics, Pre-Calculus, Ecology, and finishing up a few more CLEP tests.

“When Melanie gets something in her head to do, she just focuses and does it,” said her CollegePlus! Coach, Brittany Barden. “Her family is so driven, so focused, but it never really consumes them. They have a great life balance going on.”

Melanie doesn’t ever focus on the challenges ahead of her. Ask her about next year and she won’t tell you about the courses or homeschooling through college. She doesn’t even bring them up in conversation. She’s more than likely to tell you about her plans for graduate school and her Masters of Education.

“I want to go to California. I think it’s one of the best places in the United States. I’m looking for a graduate school in the San Diego area where I can keep on swimming. I really want to swim in grad school.”

Her coach put it best: “She’s shown that by using your time effectively and applying yourself with definite goals in mind, you can really get amazing things done.”

Want to make college fit into your life? Join the ranks of CollegePlus! students. Click here to find out how this innovative approach to college can fit into your schedule.

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CollegePlus! Student Swims Ahead

Personal Boundaries

A Good Fit?

Focusing on the Future

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