Evening of Gratitude: A Parent’s Retrospective

I think we’d all agree that parenting is not for the faint of heart. As we journey, we seek trusted partners along the way – grandparents, neighbors, Sunday School teachers, baseball coaches, or dear friends who can also model good and gracious living for our kids when we aren’t around.  As followers of Jesus, we want our children to learn not just what to think, but how to think. We want our children to learn and to love learning – and we trust they will come to appreciate the wonder of what is good, true, and beautiful.

On Saturday, November 12, Covenant faculty, students, parents, alumni, and friends came together to thank God for the many blessings bestowed on our learning community over the past years. The annual Evening of Gratitude banquet was just that – an evening focused on celebrating the unique Covenant experience. Held in the stunning Martin Commons at Messiah College, every detail came together to paint an altogether impressive, yet humbling, portrait of what makes Covenant a rare gem among private faith-based schools.

Among the evening’s many highlights:

Outstanding music: The Link & Creason families offered a string prelude featuring their 1st and 3rd grade students. The Chamber Choir closed with a stirring benediction of The Lord Bless You & Keep You.

Stirring testimonials: Alumnus Danny Haas (’14) and three current Covenant students spoke with poise about how their student experience is far from average. Each one acknowledged the grace of God in his or her life; placing as much emphasis on character and integrity as academic excellence. The Weaver family and their 6th and 2nd grade students stood together and affirmed the way in which Covenant is helping them raise global citizens, children who are both academically prepared and easily inspired to be kind.

A warm spirit of fellowship: Nearly 200 guests enjoyed lively conversation around a delicious meal. Where else might you find parents and teachers sharing a meal, strengthening bonds, discovering new connections, and joining together in giving thanks for our learning community?

A bold invitation: In his warm welcome, Dr. Dean Curry, Director of the Messiah College Honors Program, encouraged attendees with this thought: “Please send more of your Covenant students to Messiah College – not only are they some of our finest students, they know that their Christian faith is  a world-engaging faith & a world-transforming faith – it’s not a world-renouncing faith.”

A renewed call to leadership:  Guest speaker Dr. Peter Lillback of Westminster Theological Society underscored the importance of investing in an education that matters. His outstanding address on Christian and classical leadership virtues resonates with the mission of Covenant Christian Academy to train up the next generation of thoughtful, principled servant leaders.

Few things are more touching than watching your children’s past, current, and future teachers gather together and sing Non Nobis, Domine, a short Latin hymn of Thanksgiving that translates to “Not unto us, O, Lord, but to Thy name give glory.” Many schools have capable faculty. Many schools have intensive academic expectations. Many schools have positive test scores and nice facilities. But I would posit that few schools have the remarkable blend of deep faith, excellence, rigor, and joyful camaraderie that I have observed at Covenant Christian Academy.

Many generous donors and sponsors came together to make The Evening of Gratitude a success. If you’ve not yet considered making a gift, of any size, to support Covenant’s mission, please give the opportunity some careful thought. Our world needs Covenant graduates more than ever…as Dr. Lillback noted, the word character derives from the Greek word “charakter” meaning an engraved mark or imprint on the soul. Character is quite literally the impression of a life that never leaves until that life has been expended or worn out. As a Covenant parent, I pray that my children will fully embrace the way of Jesus and develop the kind of intellect and character that will make a difference for eternity. And I remain grateful each day to be able to provide this all-encompassing educational experience for them.

– A grateful Grammar School mom

David Sonju with Mike Bunn on Global Mission Engagement

Q: What is JAARS?
A: JAARS is Jungle Aviation and Radio Service. It’s basically just the technical branch of Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Q: How do you help students catch a vision for missions when there’s the world outside telling them that “losing your life” is a pretty unattractive position?
A:Well I think first of all, of course, if your students and the families that they come from are well read in the Bible, they hopefully will get a different message than that. But I know as a child growing up, my parents would read to us the stories of missionaries every night. So we would read a book about, ya know, one missionary, Nate Saint, or somebody from India. So we’d hear these stories and get inspired by them, of all the things that God was doing around the world. That was one way we became interested. And then my parents and our church also made it a point to take us when they could to places, whether that was downtown with street people or to Mexico to work with villages down in Mexico. That was another way they instilled in us a vision. And then my family personally encouraged all of us boys to take one year between high school and college and do mission work and see something else. It’s not about me. Go out there, learn more about God, get close to God, but also serve Him for a year, and then go to school.

Q: Was there a particular missionary or story that you heard as a young person that particularly grabbed your attention?
A:Well, there were a lot—Hudson Taylor for me was incredible. Reading the stories of some of the early missionaries like him who left family, went by ship . . . some of these guys would pack their coffins full of their belongings knowing that they were gonna die where they were going.

Q: Over the years, how many students—because of presentations like this—at least put the idea of missions or missionary service on their list of possibilities?
A: I’ve been overseas the past 25 years or so. And here in the states, when I come home to the states, I visit my Christian college where I went to school and I speak with a lot of the guys there about serving God overseas as an option other than the airlines or anything else. And a lot of them are very interested in that. I’ve kept up with a number of them through their 4, 5 years of college life and seen them end up on the mission field, maybe a dozen, maybe more. But the reality is taht kids get called into missions at a much, much younger age. So I mean your kids are out there at the helicopter—those 5-year-olds—they’re the ones who will get called.

Q: What advice would you give to your young, school age self, about looking ahead at life and all its possibilities?
A. Well, I would look for any opportunity I can to help other people read the Bible and what it says about reaching the lost—Jesus in the New Testament. It opens up their young or my young mind to things other than myself. I mean we grew up with everything we needed. Once you’re overseas and you see the reality and hear the stories of the reality of the third world . . . reading about it’s one thing, seeing it is another. So having an opportunity to see it, not every 5-year-old or gradeschooler can see that, but a high schooler can. So take that opportunity.

Q: How can we be praying for your ministry in the year ahead?
A: JAARS is, of course I told you, it’s a technical side. So we end up needing a lot of people who are not your stereotypical missionary. Ya know it’s not typically the preacher. It’s not necessarily even the Bible translator. I come from a mission originally Youth With Mission, YWAM. You know I was doing evangelism and work all around the world.

Note: Mike Bunn, JAARS Instructor, and Mike Mower, Director of Missions at the Airport, a former airplane pilot who served in the Philippines, recently landed one of their helicopters on Covenant’s campus to introduce students to their global missionary outreach. JAARS exists to make Bible translation and language development possible, especially in the most remote and difficult places on earth. We do that by enabling locally-appropriate and sustainable solutions in transportation, technology, media, and training. Learn more at www.JAARS.org.

Ravi Jain visits Covenant

‘You don’t need to make math interesting – it’s already more interesting than we can handle!’ – Paul Lockhart, A Mathematician’s Lament

Covenant enjoyed a visit from Ravi Jain, co-author of The Liberal Arts Tradition, on Friday, 9/23. Ravi led a mathematics workshop for our faculty in the morning followed by a talk to our upper schoolers in the afternoon about how learning science flows from wonder and leads to worship.

Over the last decade, Jain and his colleagues at the Geneva School in Orlando, FL have sought to recover an approach to teaching math and science that more fully embodies the classical tradition. Science should be taught in a way that corresponds to the native curiosity of students, giving students eyes to observe the beauty, complexity, and harmony of the created world. Placing scientific discoveries in their historical context so that students experience the pathos of scientific discovery will lead students to a greater appreciation for the marvelous achievements of science.

With regard to math, Jain drew our attention critics such as Morris Kline and Paul Lockhart who contend that modern methods of math instruction serve to dull the creativity of students. In his Mathematician’s Lament, Paul Lockhart, says that “mathematics is the music of reason. To do mathematics is to engage in an act of discovery and conjecture, intuition and inspiration . . . to be frustrated as an artist; to be awed and overwhelmed by an almost painful beauty…” Unfortunately, “this rich and fascinating adventure of the imagination has been reduced to a sterile set of ‘facts’ to be memorized and procedures to be followed.” Jain recognizes the importance of technique, but agrees with Lockhart that the key is to teach technique in the context of discovery. “Give your students a good problem, let them struggle and get frustrated. See what they come up with . Wait until they are dying for an idea, then give them some technique. But not too much.”

By teaching in this way, Ravi and his colleagues have seen more and more students become lovers of math, seeing it not just as a series of techniques or a body of content, but as an exciting path of discovery and awe. At Covenant, we want to awaken desire for beauty and truth in the hearts and minds of our students (and ourselves!) Learning math is a wonderful avenue for this cultivation of our humanity because mathematics is built on the beauty, symmetry, and harmony of the world God made. In all of this, classical Christian education is seeking to attend to the humanity of our students. As Stratford Caldecott wrote in his wonderful essay, Beauty for Truth’s Sake, the best way to teach students is “by first awakening the poetic imagination.” After all, we are educating image bearers of a loving and majestic God, students who are naturally curious and who seek answers that satisfy their soul rather than simply the “right answer” for the test so they can “move on” to the next subject

We are excited to continue a conversation with Ravi Jain this year as we seek to refine our teaching methods to more and more lead students to a love for learning to the glory of God.

The unTED Talk

Covenant is excited to have Dr. Dru Johnson from The King’s College speak to our community on Tuesday, October 4th at 7 PM. Dr. Johnson earned a Ph.D. from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, writing a thesis on biblical epistemology. Prior to serving as an Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at King’s, Dr. Johnson  studied and taught analytic philosophy at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. He has earned an M.Div. from Covenant Theological Seminary and an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Missouri.

Dr. Johnson has served as a Templeton Senior Research Fellow at The Herzl Institute in Jerusalem, Israel and serves as the co-chair for the Hebrew Bible and Philosophy program unit in the Society for Biblical Literature.  Dr. Johnson also teaches occasionally as a visiting professor at Covenant Theological Seminary and more frequently in Western Kenya in a school for rural pastors. He formerly served seven years in the U.S. Air Force, including five years involved in counter-narcotics operations in the Amazon basin of Columbia. He is ordained in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and he and his wife have four children.

His publications include:

  • Biblical Knowing: A Scriptural Epistemology of Error (2013)
  • Scripture’s Knowing: A Companion to Biblical Epistemology (2015)
  • Genesis 1-11. Transformative Word Commentary Series (2016)
  • Knowledge By Ritual: A Biblical Prolegomenon to Sacramental Theology (2016)

Drawing on his research in philosophy and theology, Dr. Johnson will be speaking about the kind of learning that leads to transformative growth and wisdom. Here is a description of his talk:

“The unTED Talk: How well-crafted speeches don’t necessarily teach us anything”

A college quite literally refers to a group of colleagues. Scientists have figured this out. The scientific enterprise only works when colleagues work in community to better understand the realities that they study. Learning, for scientists, necessarily happens as a form of apprenticeship within a community, where a young scientist begins as a novice and trains to contribute to the group’s understanding. 

TED Talks, on the other hand, propose another model of learning: a profound and eloquent insight delivered in a polished and brief speech. These wildly popular talks focus on the expert in the room sharing what he or she has learned with everyone else. However, what do we learn in such an environment? The danger is both in the setup and delivery. A polished speech can leave us thinking we’ve understood something profound, but we only feel that way because we understood how the parts of the talk worked together toward a common rhetorical goal. TED Talks are famous for this and that “polished speech model” is even being mocked within the TED Talk community.

Thousands of years ago, the Hebrew Bible and New Testament spelled out a unique view of expertise formation. Under the biblical model, young folk do not learn by well-crafted talks—though eloquent oratory often engages us as learners. Wisdom attains by entering a community of learners, submitting to their authority, and embodying instruction in order to see the world differently than could ever happen otherwise. Thus, discernment is transformational, forever changing the way we see that which we study. 

This talk challenges the “do what you love” idea of careerism by looking at these two forms of learning: the lure of listening to excellent rhetorical construction without transformation as opposed to submitting to a community that seeks to foster wisdom amongst colleagues. I pose that the “do what you love” model of career planning—so prevalent today—should be replaced with a better question: What community should I belong to and how will being a colleague transform my understanding?

 

 

An Evening of Gratitude – November 12, 2016

We’re hosting an evening you won’t want to miss. Covenant Christian Academy will celebrate An Evening of Gratitude on Saturday, November 12, 2016. We are pleased to announce that two generous donors have pledged a $65,000 match for this year’s banquet.

We are excited that Dr. Peter Lillback, President of historic Westminster Theological Seminary, will give the keynote address at Covenant’s 2016 Evening of Gratitude. Dr. Lillback is a wonderful exemplar of the kind of Christian leader we are seeking to develop at Covenant.

An Evening of Gratitude will include stories from current students and graduates, showing how a Covenant education prepares our students for wherever their path may lead them.

Please join us in celebrating what God has accomplished and where He is leading.  You can find sponsorship information or reserve your tickets for An Evening of Gratitude HERE.

The banquet is being hosted at the Messiah College Martin Commons on Saturday, November 12, 2016 at 6:00PM.

What is the Covenant Difference?

Around this time last year, I began preparing for my first year of teaching at Covenant. My family and I were moving to the area from Brooklyn, New York, and I was thrilled about becoming part of the Covenant community, but not sure what to expect in the classroom. Up to this point I had been a college professor, and my training had prepared me for working with older students. I imagined that my new students here would be, by virtue of their youth, restless and unfocused. And I worried that, with high-schoolers, even polite ones, I’d eventually encounter disinterest if I failed to conclude each discussion by making it about them, asking how they personally related to each literary or historical figure rather than helping them discover times and places that were not entirely like their own.

After a full year of teaching at Covenant, I can report with great delight that not only was none of this the case, but that the students at this school are some of the finest I’ve ever worked with. I found this year, that, as a group, Covenant students have several outstanding qualities, which I will try to summarize here.

1. Covenant students have a deep capacity to learn. By this I mean that they have become accustomed, from their earliest school days, to listening with sustained attention, a skill that in turn allows them to wait patiently for a big idea to emerge from discussion and, more important, to pursue it. Our students can take a difficult question and use it not only to look backward (When else has this question occurred, and in what circumstances? What did Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Brontë, or C.S. Lewis have to say about it?) but also forward (What other ways can this issue be framed? How should I look for it in my future reading?). This allows them to seek out and articulate answers independently, a habit of mind that will, I believe, shape and support them for the rest of their lives. That they can already practice this approach to the world is, in my experience, rare, and a pleasure to engage with.

2. Covenant students have been taught to use their whole selves, and use them well; it seems to me that, rather than separating intellectual pursuits from other aspects of their lives, they bring everything they know and enjoy into the classroom, and, conversely, are able to apply classroom disciplines and pursuits to what they do outside of school. This may help explain why so many of my students this year, in addition to regularly engaging in discussions, participated in conversations in other ways: by drawing on paper or on the board, reciting a memorized verse or musical refrain, and even, in one case, respectfully requesting permission (and receiving it) to execute a cartwheel in the classroom, to illustrate a point. This kind of free, open pursuit of understanding is what Kevin Clark and Ravi Jain suggest, in The Liberal Arts Tradition, is the goal of education, with students who are “cultivated in body and soul – mind, will, and affections” (2), and it seems to be flourishing here.

3. Covenant students have a quality of joy. I of course don’t mean that they are always happy (nor, I think, would anyone want them to be), but rather that they generally have an air of expecting, when they enter a classroom, to enjoy themselves, to hear something pleasing, intriguing, or worthy of their consideration, not only after they’ve mastered something fascinating or difficult but even before they experience learning. I think this is the fruit of Covenant’s Biblical pursuit of that which is “excellent and praiseworthy”; it is also, surely, another habit that this school’s outstanding faculty has formed in these young people, by shaping them over the course of their education with such love and with such high standards. I can gratefully say that my colleagues and students have, this year, given me the expectation of joy in the classroom as well.

– Dr. Flora Armetta June 2016

Andrew Peterson and Classical Education

Andrew Peterson gave two masterful talks to our students on May 16th – what a treat to have him visit Covenant and join our conversation. He enjoyed it, too, saying “I was so impressed by the students at Covenant – not only were they good listeners, but the quality of the questions they asked bore witness to the good conversations that are cultivated in the school. I found myself wishing that this model of education had been around when I was a kid, because I would have loved it.”

Our faculty are stewards of a great conversation where students learn to LOVE to learn and to seek what is good what is true and what is beautiful. It was encouraging to have a kindred spirit like Andrew enliven our conversation and inspire us toward even greater things!

 

Photos from Andrew Peterson’s Visit

You can learn more about Andrew Peterson at here.

Falcon Graduates: Ready to Fly

2016-Graduates-Meme-Schools

It is with the intertwined feelings of joy and sadness that we send off our Class of 2016 graduates to pursue their callings. We will miss seeing them in our classrooms and halls, but we are excited to send them out, knowing they are ready and that the time is right.

Salutatorian Azra Dees will study molecular biology at Rutgers in the fall.

Salutatorian Azra Dees will study molecular biology at Rutgers in the fall.

As they pursue a wide array of interests and fields of study – from medicine to the military, from business to biotechnology – we know that their liberal arts education has prepared them for success. In her Valedictorian address, Allie Good spoke about the impact that her fellow students have had on her during her career at Covenant. “We have grown together, laughed together, worried together, cried together, and celebrated together. We have deep roots that spread throughout years of growth and learning and friendship, and I am truly grateful for each and every one of you.” This theme of community was also emphasized by fellow graduate Azra Dees in her Salutatorian speech. Dees offered a prayer that “we never forget each other and the time we spent here together. I pray that we never forget that we are loved.”

Allie Good’s closing remarks are a fitting way to remember the Class of 2016: “This is what

Allie Speaking2

Valedictorian Allie Good will study biomedical engineering at The Ohio State University.

I hope we find as we go out and ‘conquer the world.’ I hope that as we depart and go our separate ways that what Covenant has imparted to us, is the example of a truly Christ-centered, loving, unique community. I hope that in our lives beyond these walls, we all seek and find something like this, a community that we can consider a family. And I know that if we ever get lost and need a little reminding, we can always follow our feet back home.”

 

 

 

Commencement 2016: Celebrating God’s Faithfulness

On May 26, 2016, fourteen graduating seniors stood on stage at Covenant Christian Academy’s Commencement Ceremony while the auditorium filled with the lyrics of the ancient hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”

At a time when most students are told again and again that the world is their oyster and that they can do anything, Covenant chose to celebrate the achievement of their graduating seniors by praising God for his faithfulness to the school and the families within it. Headmaster Dr. David Sonju recognized the faithfulness of God in giving them such a tight knit and supportive community.

“One of the great joys of this school is that you’ll leave this stage and enter into the alumni community,” said Sonju. “We pray for many more years of God’s faithfulness to this academy.”

Valedictorian Allison Good and Salutatorian Azra Dees both spoke about the community and faithfulness they experienced during their time at Covenant. “There is always a plan for us,” said Dees. “We only have to go. I pray that along the way, we never forget each other and the time we spent here together. I pray that we never forget that we are loved.”

Good echoed that sentiment in her speech. “What is truly beautiful about this school is…the experience of being part of a people that fill these halls, who ultimately create the identity of Covenant Christian Academy. As a member of the since-kindergarten club, after thirteen years, I can attest to what we’ve experienced growing up at Covenant, what we’ve experienced as fully integrated members of a community.”

In the fall, Allison Good will attend Ohio State University to study Biomedical Engineering. Azra Dees will attend Rutgers University to study Molecular Biology.

Mr. Gordon Zubrod, J.D., delivered the commencement speech. Zubrod worked as an Assistant United States Attorney for thirty-five years. He served in his last assignment as Senior Litigation Counsel for the Department of Justice, a career which has taken him to Romania, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. He worked against organized crime, political corruption, and human trafficking. Zubrod has close ties with Covenant Christian Academy. His son-in-law Chris Perrin is the founder of the school and three of his grandchildren graduated from Covenant. Next year Zubrod will be teaching a Mock Trial Elective at Covenant.

Zubrod’s speech also reflected on the faithfulness of God in the lives of these graduating students. “Way to go,” Zubrod congratulated the seniors. “God’s been faithful, and so have you, and tonight is the harvest you reap. Well done.”

Zubrod drew from extensive experience in his own life to encourage the graduates to carry well the tools they have been given. He spoke about pursuing truth and justice in a world that is so often filled with the lack of it. “I’ve seen witnesses willing to die for the truth … and defendants who would kill them without a conscience. I have seen, and prosecuted, policemen, judges, and high ranking, elected, public officials who sold themselves to the highest bidder. The core of my labors has involved the assessment of character.” Zubrod said the assessment of character has been his life’s journey—and will be for the graduates as well. Zubrod argued that Christians can look at the world in a different way, knowing the ending has already been written. The graduates, he said, must choose to live and work as a labor of love.

For them to achieve success in life, Zubrod charged them to play more, develop a love for truth, pay attention to detail, do hard things, and build their lives around the legacy they’ll leave behind. “You are the heirs of a classical tradition, learned through a rich theological culture,” he said. “This journey is really just beginning.”

The fourteen graduating seniors were then presented their diplomas by Dr. David Sonju, Headmaster; Mrs. Kristen Miller, Upper School Dean; Mr. Greg Lowe, President, Board of Directors; and Mrs. Emily Dixon, Guidance Coordinator. Current Covenant students lined each side of the auditorium, cheering on their older classmates. Each student of the graduating cohort was then prayed over by Dr. Matthew Hunter, Upper School Humanities Teacher.

Perhaps the best example of God’s faithfulness to these students was seen in what wasn’t said: the smiles, the proud parents snapping pictures, the high fives, the excitement on each graduate’s face. All fourteen graduates have been shepherded and encouraged by caring parents, teachers, and staff members. Though they are pursuing a wide variety of careers—design, social work, military service, and nursing, among others—they each leave Covenant as confident, optimistic young men and women who, because of the care, guidance, and education they have received, may truly change the world.

Commencement 2016 Scenes

About the Author

Rachael Dymski is a freelance writer and blogger living in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Her work has appeared in places like Relevant Magazine, Humane Pursuits, Patheos, The Burg, Healthy Leaders, and her personal blog rachaeldymski.com. She is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Crawl Space Journal, a literary journal for readers and writers of Young Adult Fiction.

Senior Thesis 2016

Hello. My name is Allie Good, and I am a senior. I’d like to invite you to an annual special event for Covenant Christian Academy, Senior Thesis. I’ve attended Covenant since kindergarten, and for the past thirteen years, I have seen and heard about this daunting task each senior faces. The thesis is a year-long research project culminating in a public speech and defense before the entire Upper School student body – along with parents, guests, and an intimidating panel of school board members.

As I approached my senior year, I must admit that I was nervous to uptake such a momentous assignment. The process took all year and a great deal of effort. However, I knew I was prepared, not only because I had experienced thesis teachers, but because of all I have been given leading up to this year. Senior Thesis represents the focus Covenant places on writing and rhetorical skills, but it also shows the commitment and years of work our teachers have poured into their students since kindergarten. They have each guided, molded, and prepared us to attack Senior Thesis with experience and confidence, and we are excited to share what we have learned.

Covenant’s senior class of 2016 will be presenting their theses on Tuesday, May 17th and Thursday, May 19th in the Edger and Elizabeth Dunlap Center starting at 8:30am. In addition, three students will also be presenting at Messiah College at 7pm on May 23rd.

Tuesday May 17th

Thursday May 19th
8:30-9:00

Allie – Pursuing Canine Communication

 8:30-9:00

Natalie – For Sale By Owner
9:05-9:35

Monica – Tiger Mom

 9:05-9:35

Tim – Seeking Change: A Biblical Approach to Money
9:35-9:55                       break 9:35-9:55                        break
10:00-10:30

Joseph – Taxed to Death: The American Way

 10:00-10:30

Matt – Reducing Internal Police Stress
10:35-11:05

Azra – Know Your Stuff: The Basics of HIPPA

 10:35-11:05

Wesley – Money Behind Bars
11:10-11:40

Gary – Does Marketing Kill Creativity?

 11:10-11:40

Albert  – Death with Dignity
11:45-12:45                   lunch 11:45-12:45                    lunch
12:50-1:20

Sophia – Loneliness in a Connected World

 12:50-1:20

Molly – Calling All Customers
1:25-1:55

Kyle – NCAA: Dropping the Ball on College Athletes

 1:25-1:55

Colsen – Finding a Winning Story

– Allie Good, Covenant Class of 2016

Allie Sr Pick