Where instinct and analysis meet: Christiana Thornton reflects on the college-planning journey with son, Owen

To the crowd in the bleachers and the batter at the plate, Owen Thornton’s best pitches whiz by like meteors, gone before the brain can make sense of them.  

To Owen, these pitches contain a world of unseen elements. Hours upon hours of practice. Years of developing discipline and focus. Dozens of on-the-mound micro-calculations.  

A single, game-changing moment is often much more than it seems – in life as in baseball. Which is why Owen’s best advice for those on deck to begin college-and-career planning boils down to two words: “start early.” 

That’s true even – or maybe especially — if your mom happens to be Christiana Thornton, President and CEO of Granite Edvance. As Owen graduates from Bishop Brady High School on June 6 and prepares to head to Messiah University in Pennsylvania, he and his parents are reflecting back on a complex journey that included countless dinner table conversations, a dozen campus visits, a high stakes whiteboard session, and a bit of instinct.  

Owen has been playing baseball for as long as he can remember, starting with tee-ball and moving on to rec teams, then travel teams, and eventually Bishop Brady’s baseball team. Encouraged at first by his dad, Jeff, a sports enthusiast, Owen quickly developed a passion of his own.  

“I really just enjoy competing and winning,” he said.  

That competitive spirit cut both ways when Owen was young. “He was really hard on himself,” Christiana recalled.  

Good friends helped Owen cope with the ups and downs, as did the mindset he developed. “One thing I started telling myself was to control what I can control. Just focus on what I can do,” he said.  

That attitude served him well on and off the mound. “I think one of the things that coaches have observed about him is his ability to manage his emotions,” Christiana said. 

Owen also found the self-discipline early in his high school career to clean up his diet and commit to good sleep habits. His interest in health and wellness guided his career exploration – as did an unexpected setback: an elbow injury that required him to undergo physical therapy. “That kind of sparked my curiosity,” said Owen, who went on to enroll in an anatomy class that offered dual high school and college credit and grew further intrigued by the field. He’s now deciding between physical therapy and pre-med majors.  

Professional goals were among many factors Owen and his family considered as they began planning for college during his sophomore year. He also wanted to find a Christian college located away – but not too far away — from home, one where he could play baseball, preferably for a coach he really liked, and enjoy a fair amount of playing time.  

After Owen had visited colleges all over the East coast and communicated with numerous coaches, Christiana asked him to make a list, ranking the schools based on his visits and research. Later, after he’d had narrowed his list down to his top three schools, Owen’s sister, Natalie, held up a big dry erase board at the dining room table and had Owen write out the pros and cons of each school. “I could see what he was thinking, and that helped guide the process,” Christiana said. 

If thoughtful analysis ruled the day, instincts also played a role. Christiana remembers a moment in the dining hall while they were visiting Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA, last spring. “He said, ‘I could picture myself going here,’” she said. “He hadn’t said that anywhere else.”  

“It was just a gut feeling when we got there,” Owen added.  

As he heads to college, Owen continues to have high expectations for himself. “I hope to excel even more in academics while playing a sport in college,” he said. “Now that I’m heading into a difficult field, I’ve got to be on the ball.” 

Christiana hopes college will enrich Owen in other ways as well. “To me, college was an opportunity to explore my own interests and start to understand myself better and become independent and create my own identity,” she said. “There are so many life skills that I learned in college. I’m excited for him to have those opportunities.” 

Of course, her emotions are mixed, especially as Owen finishes out his high school career and pitches his last games. A few weeks ago, he got to play a game in Cooperstown, New York, the birthplace of baseball, pitching head-to-head against the friend who used to put his arm around him on the bench every time he struck out.  

“It’s been really fun as a parent to see his growth and development,” Christiana said. 

Navigating the college-planning journey with Owen has also offered Christiana a new perspective on her work. 

“I realized, wow, if I’m at times confused and overwhelmed by the process, I can’t imagine being a parent and not having this knowledge and experience,” she said. “It reminded me what an important role we play at Granite Edvance.”  

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