Sixteen-year-old Jon Moore’s schooling experience is unique when compared to the average high schooler. He has been through what millions across the country have experienced as well: homeschool.

“I never went to kindergarten. Ever since I was little my mom would do things with me; she taught me, of course, the alphabet and how to count. My first year of school was in ninth grade,” stated Moore.

Motivation to learn and explore life is an essential characteristic for those completing their schoolwork in the home. Without a teacher constantly pushing them forward, Moore has discovered homeschoolers must find a way to push themselves for success.

“To me there’s two types of homeschoolers. There’s the homeschoolers that get things done and there’s those that give the other homeschoolers a bad reputation– they sleep and play video games,” said Moore.

For Moore, acquiring an education was a mix between public school and homeschool. While the majority of his classes were accomplished at home, Moore has also experienced public courses.

“Homeschool takes a lot of self motivation. So when I’m lacking in one area and I don’t have the motivation to do it, I realize that the structure here at school can be good and I come over here and make sure I get things done,” said Moore.

One public course Moore enrolled in was eleventh grade honors english. His teacher, Timothy Larsen, found Moore to be a driven student.

“Jon is driven by curiosity.  He finds joy in discovery.  He finds satisfaction in strong ideas.

He takes advantage of this time in his life to learn by pursuing ideas and experiences that are relevant and meaningful to him. For Jon, learning is not a forced chore, but an opportunity and privilege to grow stronger,” commented Larsen.

Moore aspires to further his learning at Brigham Young University one day, without a standard high school diploma he will submit alternate information for admittance.

“I’ll submit my ACT score, it’ll probably be about average. I’ve got an Eagle Scout award, that’s something that helps, and I have a lot of service hours.”