NorthStar has a School in the Middle East?
by Aaron Cady
Maps of countries in Middle East by KeithBinns from Getty Images Signature
Created in Canva
NorthStar Academy is used by students all over the globe. Close to 2,000 students in dozens of countries go to our school online. NorthStar is based in Mississippi but is a truly international school. Did you know that NorthStar also partners with a brick and mortar school in Kuwait? Lighthouse Academy is a Christian school that uses NorthStar’s curriculum from grades six to twelve. Graduates receive a NorthStar diploma. Recently, NorthStar’s Dean of Students, Scott Berggren, and Director, Dan Cooley, visited the Lighthouse Academy.
Mr. Cooley and Mr. Berggren traveled to Kuwait City, the only major city in Kuwait. There, they met with the school’s teachers and administrators to work out any issues, as well as meeting with parents and students. Both Mr. Cooley and Mr. Berggren enjoy experiencing other countries. “I used to live in Indonesia, I was there for six years, and I visited all over Southeast Asia,” Mr. Berggren said, “I really enjoy seeing other parts of the world.” Mr. Cooley agreed, expressing his love for visiting new places and meeting new people. This was Mr. Cooley’s second visit to Kuwait and Mr. Berggren’s first.
Kuwait is located in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula. It borders Saudi Arabia and Iraq and is separated from Iran by just a little bit of water. Kuwait is hot and dry, with summer temperatures reaching over 100° Fahrenheit daily, and up to 130 in extreme cases. The country is mostly desert, with a few oases and cities. Islam is the main religion of the country, and Kuwait has close ties to the other Arabian Peninsula countries.
Lighthouse Academy was founded in the 1970s on a church compound. This compound is the only possible location for a Christian school in the country. Several hundred kids from places such as Egypt, the Philippines, Lebanon, Palestine, and India make up a diverse group of students coming from thirty different countries. While the students come from many different countries, the administration is mostly American. The overall population of the country has many different nationalities. In fact, there are more foreigners in Kuwait than natives.
NorthStar has partnered with the school for the past eleven years. Both Mr. Cooley and Mr. Berggren enjoyed their visit. “My favorite part of visiting is getting to see that because of NSA, this group of kids can get a Christian based education that they would not be able to get otherwise. There are kids there from all over the world, it is really cool to see!” Mr. Cooley said. Mr. Berggren said that his favorite part was working with the people there, seeing new cultures, and eating the dates.
For the most part, the school is similar to other brick and mortar schools, but there are some differences. Instead of having weekends on Saturday and Sunday, the school has weekends on Friday and Saturday. This is because Muslims meet on Fridays, not Sundays. Islamic holidays affect the school calendar. The church compound that the school is located on is busy, which means no extracurricular activities for the students. “They are not able to have after school sports and clubs because the campus is used right after school for church services,” Mr. Cooley explained, “It is used by a different congregation every two hours throughout the evening.”
NorthStar is a part of the Network of International Christian Schools, usually called NICS. This network has schools in countries like Kosova, Bolivia, Brazil, Kenya, Turkey, Japan, Malaysia, and others. NorthStar is the online school of the group. NSA partners with Lighthouse Academy, but also other non-NICS schools around the world. Maybe even one close to where you live.
Sources: “Climate.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/place/Kuwait/Climate.
Aaron Cady is a junior at NorthStar and has been part of the school for five years. He has written for the Navigator for two years. Aaron loves writing, sports, and any mixtures of the two. Aaron hopes to pursue a career in writing or journalism when he graduates.