Everett Chew, from Southern California, is the 2017 National Bible Bee Champion and a freshman at PHC. Bible Bee alumni and contestants form strong bonds and stay in touch with one another. Everett has just returned from visiting with friends at the 2019 Competition at the Ark Encounter in Kentucky and he shares his journey from The National Bible Bee to PHC.
Every year, the top 360 students ages 7 to 18 compete at the National Bible Bee, with which PHC is blessed to partner. "God used the Bible Bee to give me a love for studying Scripture and also taught me spiritual discipline through it," says Everett.
"I started participating in the Bible Bee as a 10-year-old in 2011, and I competed for six more years until I won the Senior division in 2017."
Everett's journey is not uncommon. He joins other Bible Bee alumni at PHC. Daniel Fierer won the National Bible Bee Competition in 2014 and has since graduated from Patrick Henry College with a degree in Economics and Business Analytics. At last year's National Bible Bee Competition, Daniel joined President Haye on stage during the awards ceremony to hand-deliver generous Patrick Henry College scholarships to the five finalists (story here).
Similarly, Caleb Hoverson, a rising senior at Patrick Henry College won the National Bible Bee Game Show in 2017 (story here). All three of these young men have understood that their training through Bible Bee helps translate to strong spiritual and academic disciplines. Everett continues,
God used the Bible Bee to give me a love for studying Scripture and also taught me spiritual discipline through it. I am currently studying Economics and Business Analytics at PHC and hope to create meaningful products in the technology sector after school.
I've had the privilege of talking to many high-schoolers and middle-schoolers about the Bible Bee and encouraging them to do it so they can study and memorize God's Word better.
I believe that PHC's partnership with the Bible Bee is important because students who participate in NBB are a great mission-fit for the college—they are incredibly strong academically, and also have a strong desire to know God through His word.
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Patrick Henry College challenges the unacceptable status quo in higher education by combining the academic strength and commitment to biblical principles that elite institutions have lost; a commitment to high academic rigor, fidelity to the spirit of the American founding, and an unwavering biblical worldview.