Speakers
Katherine Boehle, 14, has been homeschooled since she was seven. In her blog, Science on the Farm, she combines her loves of writing and photography with her interest in science. Her animal photography has been featured in Ruminations Magazine and in the 2005 calendar of the Nigerian Dwarf Goat Association.
Margaret Boehle was homeschooled except for three and a half years spent in public school. She entered Joliet Junior College at age 13 and earned her associate of arts degree with high honors at age 16. She worked as a tutor in the Academic Skills Center and for the Math Department starting at age 15. She was elected by the student body as the student representative on the JJC Board of Trustees. During her tenure on the board, she also served as chair of the Student Advisory Committee on the Illinois Community College Board and was their liaison to the Illinois Board of Higher Education Student Advisory Committee. She is now a customer service manager at Wal-Mart, where she has learned more about human nature in a year than she ever learned in all of her psychology and sociology classes combined, and she is currently contemplating her next learning adventure.
Mike Boehle is a homeschooling father of three and a professor of electronics engineering technology at Joliet Junior College, as well as an academic advisor in the Technical Department. In addition to teaching electronics classes, he also has taught college math classes. While serving in the Navy, he taught at Nuclear Power School in Orlando, FL. Three years ago, Mike's family moved into their new house, which he built on their homestead near Cornell, IL. He is currently researching ways to build a vehicle that will run on renewable energy.
Elizabeth Cameron is one of the founding members of the Champaign Chapter of HOUSE. She is the mother of two children, whom she homeschooled for fourteen years, from elementary through high school. For most of these years, the family lived on a small farm, to which they moved partly for the educational opportunities it afforded. One of her children studied Theater Arts in college and now lives in Oregon where he works as a professional musician; the other lives in Illinois, where she works as a web designer and business administrator. Elizabeth holds degrees in general studies and religious counseling. Her areas of interest and study include natural health, organic farming, politics, religious studies, music, animal husbandry, and practical homesteading skills. She currently works managing the farmstead and writing.
Laura Flynn Endres is a former public school teacher turned unschooler. She is a staunch unschooling advocate who can't believe her luck in discovering this incredible philosophy while her kids were still young. Laura tutors school children, does publicity for her local community theatre, and facilitates classes on theatre, creative writing, Artist Trading Cards, and Pokemon for the Rockford HOUSE group. She's also the former leader of Stephenson County HOUSE. Laura blogs about living and learning at piscesgrrrl.blogspot.com, enjoys writing, biking, organic gardening, and a good steaming cup of Earl Grey tea, and lives on 10 acres of family land in the cornfields of northern Illinois with her husband and two boys, Brady (15) and Jonathan (11). They have been radically unschooling for nine years.
Lynn B. Hocraffer has been homeschooling since 1985 (presently teaching her grandsons). She earned a BS in Biology and Anthropology, and has tutored and taught various grade levels and co-op classes, as well as homeschooling her two children. She is active in many online homeschool groups and has a large website full of what she's learned. She tried several homeschool programs, including both regular textbooks and workbook programs before discovering that what she was doing for FUN after class was real education. Charlotte Mason opened up a new world for her, and she's never gone back.
Rebecca Jaxon is the mother of three children, two of which were completely homeschooled and continued their educations to college and beyond. She is still homeschooling her third child, who is 17 years old. She was one of the founders of the Champaign chapter of HOUSE, which she helped run for 14 years before moving to Kane County, where she founded another chapter of HOUSE. She continues to be active at the state level, speaking at conferences on subjects such as the teaching of math and languages, as well as legal issues for the homeschooler. She has a masters degree in clinical psychology and also worked in the computer field for many years, but she says that raising her children is more fulfilling than either of those careers. Her hobbies include reading, music, politics, economics, and foreign languages. She is currently learning French so that she can go visit her oldest child, who is studying the harp in Paris.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle is a writer, a mentor, a homeschooling mom, and sometimes a teacher. She has taught freelance writing classes at various Illinois community colleges, and currently teaches Communication and Critical Inquiry at Illinois State University, where she tries to convince students that they can think for themselves. While the educational establishment talks about creating "lifelong learners," Deborah actively pursues new interests on a regular basis, such as learning to make different kinds of cheese.
Dr. Sally E. Parry is Associate Dean for Student and Curricular Affairs and Director of General Education for Illinois State University. In addition, she teaches American literature, children's literature, and the Bible as literature at ISU. She is the Executive Director of the Sinclair Lewis Society and has edited their newsletter for the last 16 years. She has also edited two collections of Sinclair Lewis short stories and is the co-author (with Robert L. McLaughlin) of We'll Always Have the Movies: American Cinema During World War II (2006).
Vada Repta is one of the original founders of the HOUSE home school support group in Champaign County. Currently, Vada is an information researcher, writer and the administrative coordinator for Precision Research Link, a company she started with another homeschool mom. She has experience in a variety of library positions and has worked as an English instructor, workshop presenter, and editor. She holds a Bachelors degree in Linguistics and a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois. She homeschooled three children over 16 years, beginning with her oldest son who left the public schools after first grade and continuing until last year when her youngest entered college.
Andrea Rice grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and now resides in Champaign, Illinois with her family. She is a writer, a homebirther, a Libertarian, and a political activist, but mostly, she is the homeschooling mother of 5 young children. She has been studying the classics for 3 years, and runs several bookclubs, including Liberty Belles, which is an American History club for homeschool girls age 6-9. She also runs a project group called Young daVincis for boys and girls 6-12 for hands on exploration of the children's interests, ranging from science, inventions, the human body to art and history.
Susan Ryan is living and learning on her central Illinois family farm with the two youngest of six kids and her husband. Besides driving her boys around to their social events that usually have some educational value, she also likes to garden, cook and explore the outdoors. She blogs on Corn and Oil covering Illinois and national homeschool/family and parental issues, along with some personal family tidbits. Susan is also a contributor for the Illinois Review and the Home Education News & Commentary. Deborah Niemann-Boehle and Susan also created the online Illinois Homeschool Freedom Watch List in the hopes of furthering grassroots Illinois homeschool networking and advocacy.
Dr. Maria Schmeekle is a sociologist specializing in family relationships and children, with a major emphasis on the complexity of family boundaries. Her new work focuses on orphans, street children, and impoverished youth in Brazil and other parts of the world. She spent the summer of 2007 in Brazil, learning Portuguese and volunteering in a project serving 420 at-risk youth in Rio de Janeiro. Dr. Schmeeckle received her doctorate from the University of Southern California in 2001.