Breen communicates ideas through speaking and writing
Chase Breen, 17, of Washington W.Va., writing on a typewriter. He self-published a fantasy novel last year. One of the things that got him started writing years ago was messing around with typewriters. (Photo provided)
Chase Breen with a copy of the book he self-published a year ago, "Bobbit & Haggs: Otherworldly Outfitters,” written under the pen name Christopher Gallagher. He is working on a new story entitled “Dark Wood.” (Photo provided)
Chase Breen, 17, of Washington, W.Va., leads yells at the Council Circle as part of the Wood County 4-H Camp in Mineral Wells. For the last several years, Breen has led the yells for the Delaware tribe during the Wood County 4-H Older Camp. (Photo provided)
Chase Breen, 17, of Washington W.Va., has been active in 4-H for a number of years. He helped implement a small disc-golf program at the Wood County 4-H Camp in Mineral Wells, which included getting portable disc golf baskets, as well as the discs. Here he is playing at the West Virginia 4-H State Camp in Jane Lew, W.Va., where he learned the sport. (Photo provided)
Chase Breen, 17, does his charting meditations at 4-H Camp. This involves many activities that are meant to encourage personal growth and understanding in a comfortable small group setting. Here, he is at a stop, giving a speech to a group of campers. (Photo provided)
Chase Breen, 17, of Washington, W.Va., served as a page at the West Virginia State Capitol during the annual 4-H Day. Breen said he wished more local 4-Hers could participate as there are a number of fun, educational activities offered. (Photo provided)
Chase Breen, 17, of Washington W.Va., writing on a typewriter. He self-published a fantasy novel last year. One of the things that got him started writing years ago was messing around with typewriters. (Photo provided)
Chase Breen with a copy of the book he self-published a year ago, "Bobbit & Haggs: Otherworldly Outfitters,” written under the pen name Christopher Gallagher. He is working on a new story entitled “Dark Wood.” (Photo provided)
Chase Breen, 17, of Washington, W.Va., leads yells at the Council Circle as part of the Wood County 4-H Camp in Mineral Wells. For the last several years, Breen has led the yells for the Delaware tribe during the Wood County 4-H Older Camp. (Photo provided)
Chase Breen, 17, of Washington W.Va., has been active in 4-H for a number of years. He helped implement a small disc-golf program at the Wood County 4-H Camp in Mineral Wells, which included getting portable disc golf baskets, as well as the discs. Here he is playing at the West Virginia 4-H State Camp in Jane Lew, W.Va., where he learned the sport. (Photo provided)
Chase Breen, 17, does his charting meditations at 4-H Camp. This involves many activities that are meant to encourage personal growth and understanding in a comfortable small group setting. Here, he is at a stop, giving a speech to a group of campers. (Photo provided)
Chase Breen, 17, of Washington, W.Va., served as a page at the West Virginia State Capitol during the annual 4-H Day. Breen said he wished more local 4-Hers could participate as there are a number of fun, educational activities offered. (Photo provided)
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WASHINGTON, W.Va. - Good communication skills and a unique education experience will be serving Chase Breen throughout his life as he looks to a career in accounting and explores his love of writing and creating stories.
Breen, 17, the son of Tom and Emily Breen, is a high school senior who is home schooled under the Abeka program based out of Pensacola Christian College in Florida.
"I have been home schooled ever since COVID when I was going into the sixth grade," he said. "Although I am home school, I have been taking full semesters of college (at West Virginia University at Parkersburg) for the past few years."
Breen has also been involved in local 4-H programs for around six years, doing a lot of leadership and communication projects.
"I think it is a wonderful thing," he said.
Breen has been a counselor at 4-H Camp in the summers. He was the president of the Lubeck Lucky Clovers for two years, secretary for one year and vice president for one year. As part of the Teen Leaders 4-H Club, he was president for one year and served as health officer.
"I like to think there are a lot of great people in 4-H," he said. "I like to see everyone succeed in the best way possible.
"It takes someone to be able to communicate and talk to someone effectively to be able to organize and lead. That is where I find myself within the organization."
Being in 4-H has helped Breen really develop his speaking skills, he said.
"Before I got into 4-H, I never would have considered myself to be a person that was a leader or a communicator," he said. "I could barely talk to someone one-on-one, let alone in front of 100-200 people or whatever it may be.
"Through 4-H, it has gotten better and better, and I can now speak in front of any number of people pretty confidently."
Participation in 4-H has also "given me that drive to lead and to organize," Breen said. "I see a lot of other 4-Hers not just be leaders, but be successful, confident and well-functioning leaders."
Breen thinks those skills will benefit him in the future, getting his accounting degree, passing the certified public accountant test and more.
"It is being able to work my way up in the business and seeing where that takes me," he said. "Every business needs some kind of accountant. I like the flexibility and growth that accounting offers."
Breen is still looking at his options to see if there is a part of the field in which he wants to specialize.
The fields of accounting and finances can get "very complicated very quickly," he said. "These days everyone has information galore at their fingertips (through their phones). People can see all of these numbers and all of this information that they have easy access to, but if they don't understand it, they need people who can explain it."
The skills he learned through 4-H have helped him be able to explain things properly, which Breen expects to translate to helping people understand financial statements better, finances in general or anything related to business.
He is still considering where he might go to college. He has been looking at continuing with WVU Parkersburg, as well as considering Fairmont State University or West Virginia Wesleyan College. He wants to eventually get his master's degree and go on to obtain his CPA license.
In addition to 4-H, Breen also helps lead an ushering group that takes up offerings during the second service on Sundays at South Parkersburg Baptist Church.
Breen feels that being home-schooled has kept him goal-oriented and given him the drive to go out and achieve what he wants to accomplish.
"You have to be a very willful person," he said. "You have to be a self-organized person and a go-getter.
"If you are, you can get the resources to do more than in a public school where it is more standardized."
Breen said a school environment and a home-school environment both have their advantages for different students. His education has been well organized.
"I have a very structured system which I think works very well," he said. "I have had a very in-depth education.
"People need to find a high-quality curriculum, just like people would look for in a school. Parents usually understand their kids pretty well to be able to shape the education in the way it can work."
Breen described home-schooling as very flexible
"It gives you the tools, but you have to be able to use them," he said. "It doesn't hold you back and it is not a lower form of education by any means.
"You can get a very good education that sets you up for success about anywhere."
Breen also enjoys reading and writing. He reads all sorts of history as well as literary classics. He enjoys early science fiction, especially Jules Verne, the author of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." His other favorite writers include Leo Tolstoy, Nathaniel Hawthorne and C. S. Lewis.
About a year ago, he self-published a fantasy novel he wrote called "Bobbit & Haggs: Otherworldly Outfitters," written under the pen name of Christopher Gallagher.
"It is a fantasy novel about two individuals who go through fantasy worlds and try to approach them scientifically," Breen said. "I was inspired by the scientific revolution of the 1600s-1700s, where society was getting out of the Dark Ages and people wanted to understand things better."
He said he created different creatures and plants instead of relying on the common fantasy tropes of dragons, goblins and other well-known creatures that occupy many fantasy stories. He wanted his characters to view the fantastical in a scientific way through observation, study and so on.
"I am creating a unique experience for the reader," he said. "If you can put your own spin on it, it makes it interesting."
He is working on a new story, called "Dark Wood," about a fictional mining town in West Virginia.
"The company kicks out everyone because of a mysterious string of deaths and the town is abandoned," Breen said. "Years later, a group of rookie scientists/college students on break go to explore the town to see what happened, and they discover something far more sinister is going on."
He hopes to be able to continue writing for as long as he is able.
One of the things that got him interested in writing was messing around with typewriters. He now has a collection of old typewriters and still uses them frequently.
His Olympia SM-8 "is by far the singular greatest writing machine I have ever had the pleasure of using," he said.
"Typewriters were one of the many things that got me to that point, and I still think they’re absolutely wonderful," he added."I love writing and giving people stories.
"I am always writing because of the need for quality stories in our world."
Breen feels people interacting on many different levels is important in the exchange of ideas and concepts, which can build connections or separate people.
"Communication often determines unity or division, success or failure," he said. "Communication is so important, to me, because it ensures that people can work together, if done right, to accomplish anything."
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com