Meet Lifelong Student of WRA, Anastasia Tegheni

Meet Lifelong Student of WRA, Anastasia Tegheni

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We had the freedom of expressing ourselves through art, poetry, science, music and, mostly, just being in nature.” – Anastasia Tegheni

Anastasia Tegheni has been enrolled with us since she was 7 years old, along with her older brother Damian, who graduated from West River Academy in 2021. Blessed with parents who understood the importance of childhood exploration, they fostered an environment where curiosity roamed freely and passions were pursued enthusiastically.

In their early years, Anastasia and Damian found solace and expression in sketching the beauty of the natural world around them, from the intricate patterns of insects to the serene majesty of the local flora and fauna. As Anastasia matured, her artistic talents found a new canvas in acrylic painting, where she discovered a penchant for capturing not just images, but emotions, within her work. National recognition soon followed, with Anastasia’s pieces earning accolades in esteemed art exhibitions.

Enjoy some of her work.

However, her artistic talent was just one part of her diverse interests. During her teenage years, Anastasia discovered a passion for competitive marksmanship, where she found herself excelling in focus and determination. With the support of a dedicated mentor, she flourished in national competitions, showcasing her abilities beyond the realm of art. During our conversation in this interview, she shared how that period in her life held significant importance, as it marked the beginning of her deep appreciation for patience, conscientiousness and discipline.

Then at age 14, Anastasia’s vocal skills took center stage when she WOWED her Music History teacher with a moving performance of Angela Gheorgiu’s “The Tree.” Anastasia faced a crossroads at this time, where her growing passion for opera clashed with the demands of her firing practice. The shooting range was on the opposite side of town from where she had her music practice. That’s when she made the decision to put her ALL into her dream career as an Opera Singer. In November 2023, she clinched First Place in the National Opera Competition, scoring both a prize and a scholarship offer. With her graduation from West River Academy set for May 2024, she’s eagerly anticipating the start of her next chapter!

Here are some pictures about her Opera career

Please watch the video interview below to hear Anastasia’s story straight from the source.

WRA Graduate Shares an Update

WRA Graduate Shares an Update

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I graduated from West River Academy in 2013. Since then, I have completed a Bachelors and Masters degree in Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and will be pursuing a Doctorate in Computational and Applied Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall. Additionally, I received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to support my graduate education. I believe that my nontraditional pre-college education as a homeschooler with West River Academy was significant in the formation of several skills that have served me well since graduation.

Much of the academic success I have encountered is due to self-motivated, curiosity-driven learning. I had the good fortune to be heavily involved in undergraduate research in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, primarily Oceanography, during my time at CU Boulder. The process of research, with its lack of a higher authority to reveal the correct answer, is very much akin to the free-form style of my education before college. Therefore, I recommend this educational style without any reservations. More than anything else, my pre-college education as a homeschooler helped me to develop a love of learning and an intrinsic locus of motivation.

~ William, Class of 2013

WRA Graduate Releases His First Music Single

WRA Graduate Releases His First Music Single

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Sergio Belmonte

We always enjoyed hearing what our students have gone on to do after they have graduated from West River Academy. We received this lovely letter from a parent in Spain about the current activities of the 2014 graduate.

“I thought of you and would like to share what our oldest son, Sergio, who graduated with WRA, is doing.

He is studying his second year of a Psychology Degree and also, composing his music. His first song was recently recorded and produced. He wants to share this message about value and identity with the youth.

WRA provided the flexibility in his schedule to pursue his dreams, now coming true. He is grateful and so are we.

Enjoy your summer!!

Blessings!”

Like it and want to see what he does next? You can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

WRA Graduate Reflects on His Life as a Homeschooler

WRA Graduate Reflects on His Life as a Homeschooler

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Eagle McMahon is a Senior at West River Academy. Here he shares his experience homeschooling: how he learned to read, his “Notebook” method of planning his studies, and becoming a professional disc golfer.

Homeschooling has been the greatest gift of my life. Many kids dream of being homeschooled and I have been able to pursue this lifestyle my entire life. It has given me so many opportunities that I would not have had if I had sat in a classroom all day. I have gotten to spend a lot of time with my family, giving me special relationships with my father and grandparents. My father and grandparents are my homeschool teachers. This opportunity has given special perks over the years. For example, this past year I traveled across the USA and competed against the world’s best professional disc golfers.

Homeschooling is based around me being able to structure my studies around my interests and create my own schedule. The main lesson it has taught me is that you do not just learn from school, you learn from everything.

My learning process has always been relaxed and fun. I have never felt pressured or stressed about learning. Because of this, I am calm and confident when I have to take on tasks. I attribute this to my loved ones for being positive and supportive of this lifestyle.

Going way back in my memory as far as I remember, when I first started off as a pre-homeschooler, I had many interests that jump started my education. I was into Legos, Transformers, and trains. I always dove deep into my hobbies and fully engrossed myself in my interests. I would collect every Transformer, know all of their names, and transform them in a flash. A fond memory I have of these early days is when my dad and I built a landscape for my toy trains. It had tunnels, elevation, and bridges for me to put toy train tracks on. One day we spent all day making a train track that went throughout the entire house. I learned to take things to a different level while having fun! My family was always there to help me learn about my interests and support me in any way they could.

During my early years of academics, I remember going to bookstores and picking out school workbooks. Every time I finished a workbook, which was about every six months, we would go back to the bookstore and get the next grade. My father used a method called the “Notebook.” It was a composition book that he used to schedule my school day. My schedule usually included things like; two pages of math, two pages of science, two pages of reading/writing, exercise, goal setting, and organizing. I looked forward to my new tasks every day. Completing these tasks gave me a sense of accomplishment and self-confidence. We still use the “Notebook” method to this day, and it is still effective as ever. I plan on using this technique for the rest of my life as my daily to-do lists.

My greatest homeschool experience is when my father took me on a trip to Hawaii. I was nine years old and it was after my mother passed. He claims he used this time for bonding and setting our new life and education in motion. We spent eight weeks of the winter from January through February to get out of the cold winter. We spent five of the eight weeks on Maui and the other three weeks on the Main Island. At the time, I barely knew how to read. One of my father’s main intentions of the trip was to teach me how to read. I spent a lot of time reading and being read to. I remember the first book I read, “Fantastic Mister Fox” by Roald Dahl. It was a perfect first book to read for a nine year old, because it was fun and captivating. We made learning to read fun by reading on beautiful beaches under the sun. Once I got a hang of reading, I read one book after the other, completing four Roald Dahl novels in the next eight weeks.

After the Hawaii experience, I realized how special homeschooling was. My education from ages ten years old to present has been unconventional and different than most others. For one, I have been able to pursue my love for cooking and nutrition. My mother and father have raised me a vegetarian, so food has always been a big thing in my life. My grandmother has always made delicious food and I saw her as an inspiration to cook food myself. Since I was at my grandparent’s house a lot for school, I had the opportunity to cook almost every day. I was a natural in the kitchen, had a knack for spices, and knew how to season food. My grandfather was so impressed with my cooking skills, that he started to ask me to cook instead of my grandmother.

Another passion of mine is buying and selling. At the time, I was really into mountain biking. It was a great way to get out in nature and exercise. However, I enjoyed buying bikes and re-selling them so I could upgrade to a better bike. In the course of one year, I bought and sold nine bikes. The first bike I bought was $200. The first premium bike I bought was $1100 and the last one I bought was a $5000 bike I got for $2500. I used the bike for a year and then re-sold it for more money.

The way I earned the money was by working with my father and buying and selling these bikes on craigslist. I was obsessed with selling items (I still am). I also sold random house hold items and valuable frisbees I collected from playing disc golf. I got very good at dealing with people and negotiating because I was doing it on a daily basis. I have learned through this to buy, sell, trade, and use craigslist which are all valuable things that I will use the rest of my life. These experiences have inspired me so much that I want to pursue a business career.

I am most proud of what I have done in disc golf. Disc golf is like standard golf, except instead of hitting a ball into a hole,you are throwing a frisbee into a suspended metal basket. When I was 9 years old, my father’s friend introduced us to the sport. At first we liked it, but just thought of it as a simple game. The more we played, the more we got involved. We played almost everyday. It was a passion we both shared and I learned a lot on the courses. I learned discipline, focus, patience, and how to control my emotions. This sport is still teaching and helping me grow to this day.

From the time I started playing disc golf up until now, it is still very much a part of my life. I have reached professional status, make money doing it, am ranked one of the top players in the world, and have five sponsors that support my game and my travels. I have traveled all around the United States to compete against the best players. This next year will be bigger and better than ever. I will be going to Sweden and Finland to compete. Disc golf is one of the fastest growing sports in the world and I am fortunate to be in on the ground level. The growth of the sport is creating more opportunities to make money. I won $1545 for winning a state tournament!

I plan to keep pursuing this and possibly get involved with the business and marketing side of the sport. This passion of mine has brought out my adventurous side and has taught me some valuable life skills. I have learned to book my own flights, plan out my finances, and be resourceful without parents around. Now that I am recognized as one of the top players, I have my own YouTube channel and I do my own video blogs of my travel experiences. As a result, I have become interested with film production and photo editing and it is one of my senior courses.In reviewing all these years, I have realized how proud I am of my alternative education. It is a unique way of life that most people do not understand. I have never been in a traditional school setting or classroom. The benefits of being a homeschool student are outstanding. I have learned many important life lessons through every day tasks and living life. My closest friends are my family and they have all taught me so much; from my father exercising with me, my Grandfather teaching me science, my uncle giving computer tips, and my grandmother with everything. I would not change the way I have done anything. My classroom is life, everyday, all the time. Only a homeschooler would know how great it is.

I believe the freedoms that come with Homeschooling have helped me experience more than your traditional student. My classroom one day is in a coffee shop, the next day the library, the next day a hiking trail, the next day a museum, the next day the disc golf course, and the next day Hawaii. School is living my life and pursuing my interest and goals with all my heart. The enjoyment of learning and growing does not have to be a task.

Homeschooling has enabled me to live in a way that allows me to be myself. Although traditional schooling may be good for others, I do not believe it would have been for me. I am forever grateful to my parents for choosing this lifestyle for my education.

The whole homeschooling lifestyle has been the greatest gift my parents have given to me. Now that I am almost ready to graduate and move onto college to start pursuing a career, I believe I have some ideas about what I want to pursue in the future. I am planning on studying business and marketing because of my resourcefulness and talent in dealing deal with people. I would eventually like to own my own business. I have taken inspiration from others who have created that for themselves. It seems like owning your own business closely relates to homeschooling in so many ways. If you are a business owner, you can shape your own schedule, be the boss of yourself, and create what you want.

I am already set up for that lifestyle because of homeschooling. All my experiences over the years from collecting, buying, selling, traveling, being creative, and developing a disc golf following has set me up for something big in the future. If I were to create a business involving disc golf, I feel as if I would already have a mass amount of support and many options. Homeschooling has taught me to set goals and go get what you want and what you need. If I need to learn something or get something done, I know how to go about doing it.

I have many goals I want to achieve this year and beyond. As a homeschooler, I have been taught that there are no boundaries and that you are allowed to think outside the box. 

Humans are capable of great things and all it takes is persistence and the ability to follow your dreams. I want to live a very prosperous life full of happiness and confidence. I expect to achieve that because of who I am as a person. Everything that I have learned and my experiences have taught me that with passion and hard work anything can be done. If I have the right mindset, I believe I can do anything.” 

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Pursuing a Passion-driven Life

Pursuing a Passion-driven Life

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2015 West River Academy High School Graduate, Chris Bones, exemplifies a life of pursuing passion.

In an interview with Entertainment Scoop’s Vivian Adaobi, he answers her question on what drives him with one word: Passion.

“Without passion, I would have quit a long time ago” he says.  “I wake up early, I go to sleep late, I work and I have fun while I do it! Because, that’s passion.” (Ent Scoop, 4/16/2015; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN5G_8LzkeM

He’s been pursuing that passion since he was young. His first experience was acting in a musical theater show at 6 years old. Ignited by the passion of acting, at age 9 he moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma to New York City to pursue a professional career in acting. While there, he played a role on Emmy Award winning daytime television show “One Life to Live”.

A few years later, in 2009, he followed his love of music to Los Angeles to launch his career as a recording artist. In April 2015 he did his first tour, touring with High School Nation. To see him in action on stage, doing what he loves best, check out his YouTube video “Chris Bones – Live on Tour!” here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5ZOpOjMHY.

To get a taste of his musical talent, watch his covers of Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXfDxQNytUM and Jealous by Nick Jonas at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kILsV96_WY

He is currently working on his first original album, due out this summer. Watch for its release by following his Twitter channel (@thechrisbones) and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/chrisbonesmusic?_rdr

Congratulations to Chris on graduating from West River Academy! We look forward to seeing where his passion leads him to next!

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