A Mount Pleasant native’s ability to describe what America means to him through chemistry concepts recently earned 10-year-old Milo Bhushan select recognition as one of the winners of the America’s Field Trip contest. In celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026, the fifth-grader and a small group of elementary school students were rewarded with a trip to the 3,471-square-mile recreation wonderland known as Yellowstone National Park.
By employing an analogy referencing exothermic reactions and the periodic table of elements, Bhushan was able to clearly and accurately convey his patriotic spirit.
Although the homeschooled youngster aspires to be an astronomer someday, the idea of injecting chemistry in his 100-word essay came to him while his mother, Kacie, was teaching class in the science-based subject.
“We are a family of readers,” said Kacie who relocated this past July with Milo and the rest of her family from Mount Pleasant to Johns Island. “He’s grown up surrounded by books and happily he’s just a voracious reader on his own. I think that’s the main thing that helps not only his vocabulary, but just exposes him to a huge variety of writing styles and genres.”
As for the westbound sojourn from Aug. 19-24, Bhushan shared that “every single minute” was awesome, from being up close and personal with geysers to finding himself surrounded by a remarkable array of roaming wildlife, including wolves and elk.
The resident bison, he noted, walked close enough to his bus that no binoculars were required to appreciate the size and majesty of the massive bovines.
“Everyone was smart and there were plenty of interesting people,” recalled the industrious scholar who enjoys participating in numerous academic contests throughout the year. “Most of them were from the East Coast, too. Some had never flown before.”
When touching on his reading regimen, Bhushan reported just finishing the How to Train Your Dragon series and is now working on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. His all-time favorite literary work, he added, is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
Kacie’s decision to homeschool her son wasn’t without sacrifice, however, as she gave up practicing medicine to instruct Milo on a daily basis. Her career-altering adjustment resulted from schools shutting down during the global pandemic of 2020, which coincided with the young man’s kindergarten year.
“It has been so successful and rewarding both for Milo and myself that we just kept doing it. [Milo] works hard and covers all the same subjects as other kids, but probably even more so,” she said while mentioning several extra educational enrichment classes the fifth-grader registers for online.
When he’s not engrossed in his latest book of interest or tackling the periodic table, young Bhushan travels back to Mount Pleasant a few times a week to visit friends and/or engage in extracurricular activities.