South Carolina Rho Gamma State Chapter of Eta Sigma Alpha National Home School Honor Society

Eta Sigma Alpha National Home School Honor Society is the brainchild of Joanne Juren. Ms. Juren discovered that home schooled students were not permitted to join the National Honor Society and decided to fill the need she saw by creating a similar organization for home schooled students of exceptional academic caliber. In 1999, the Alpha Chapter of Eta Sigma Alpha National Home School Honor Society was formed. Eta Sigma Alpha is the first honor society formed exclusively for home schooled students. Currently, Eta Sigma Alpha has active chapters in thirty-one states.

In 2002, Tandy Collier conceived the idea of a SCHEA-sponsored, statewide chapter of Eta Sigma Alpha for South Carolina. That year, the Rho Gamma Chapter of Eta Sigma Alpha was chartered. Its central purpose is to provide a chapter for those home schooled students that do not live close enough to participate in a local South Carolina Eta Sigma Alpha chapter. Another purpose was to facilitate an annual statewide volunteer service project among the South Carolina local chapters, as well as put the various South Carolina local chapters in touch with each other at an annual Eta Sigma Alpha recognition ceremony held at the SCHEA-sponsored South Carolina state home school convention each June.

The mission statement of Eta Sigma Alpha reads as follows: “The purpose of Eta Sigma Alpha National Home School Honor Society shall be to recognize and encourage scholarship among home school students. To achieve this purpose, Eta Sigma Alpha National Home School Honor Society shall provide opportunities for the development of leadership and service. Eta Sigma Alpha shall encourage the development of an intellectual climate that will stimulate the exchange of ideas and ideals, foster scholarship, and promote academic excellence. Eta Sigma Alpha shall also advocate homeschooling as a viable and successful educational methodology and act as a liaison for homeschooling to the general public, colleges/universities, and the media."

Eta Sigma Alpha members will be considered by colleges and universities to be on equal footing with National Honor Society students when applying for college admission and when competing for college scholarships.