NorthStar Academy’s Student Council (also known as StuCo) is behind every event on our beautiful online campus. However, StuCo often works in the background, behind the Wizard-of-Oz-esq curtain.
Student Council is a big group of students and mentors all working together for the good of NorthStar. As such, there are quite a few people and roles to explain. In Part 1 of this article, I’ll be talking about the Leadership Team.
Read MoreNorthStar has been around for 25 years. For over two decades, NorthStar has been giving kids a strong foundation of education. Back in the day if you were a missionary and moved overseas, there were not many options. A lot of people had to send their kids to boarding schools. Children had to live apart from their families while they attended school. There was a problem, and one man saw a solution.
Read MoreAhh, there is nothing like the ocean. At the very least, this is the response that you would get if you were to ask Mrs. Beirne what her thoughts were about the ocean.
Read MoreMrs. Velasquez, or Mrs. V as most call her, is a curriculum writer for NorthStar and the Student Council advisor for this year. That means she’s not only a leader for the school, but she’s in charge of leading the student leaders! And, if teaching young, tender, and sometimes timid students how to rise up and become leaders isn’t hard enough, she has to do it completely online, across many countries around the globe.
Read MoreWould you believe me if I told you that NorthStar has a secret code name? Well, believe me or not, it’s true! NorthStar has in fact been cleverly disguised in the 2021 book Of Mages, Kings, and Polaris Academy. The book was written by a high school student and former writer on the Navigator: Tirzah!
Read MoreDear Fish,
I’ve never been a very sentimental person, but as I near the end of my senior year, I’m finding it harder and harder not to reminisce and look back over the last four years. Everyone tells you, ‘Time flies, so don’t wish it away,’ but you never realize how fast it all happens until it’s in the rear view.
Read MoreAs I was working on piecing this article together, it kept getting bigger and bigger. The longer I read over Kate, Caleb, Regan, Sarah Grace, and Rhianna’s words, the more I realized that I wanted to be able to share all of it. Everything they have said are things that I needed to be told four years ago, and I couldn’t bring myself to cut half of it out. So, without further ado, here is part 2 of the article:
Read MoreThe best stories come from a need. When you back that need with passion, diligence, and personal experience, you just might find something worth sharing. We all could find a story about our personal experience that we could talk about, but not many have the diligence to write, illustrate, and publish such a story into a book. Regan had such a story to share. Using her talents in writing and drawing to publish a children’s book about China—a place she calls home—Regan used her unique experiences to shed new light on a misunderstood country.
Read MoreArt. It is interpretation, passion, and creativity uniquely expressed by different individuals. A multitude of art forms exist going back thousands of years, and painting is one of them.
Read MoreThe staff of the NorthStar Navigator write articles on other students, teachers, events, and clubs around NSA all year long. Naturally, as readers, none of you get to really know them through what they write. To help solve that problem, I’m here to divulge the New Year’s resolutions of the Navigator staff.
Read MoreThere have been various articles written by the Navigator staff about middle school and high school kids who attend NorthStar Academy. However, there seemed to be a lack of information about the elementary students at NSA. There may be fewer elementary students active on Microsoft Teams than students in other grades, I do believe that these fourth, fifth, and sixth graders need a bit of representation in the Navigator too. So, without further ado, let us take a little peek into the lives of Elijah, Sarah, Haesol, and Allen!
Read MoreThe impact that teachers can have on their students' lives is sometimes overlooked. Our teachers are the people who support us in our growth and learning, and a teacher that cares is memorable. Of course, here at NSA, we are lucky to have remarkable teachers like Mrs. Arnaud. In addition to working at NSA, Mrs. Arnaud works for the Florida Department of Corrections as a special education teacher at a prison.
Read MoreWhat would it be like as president of StuCo? How would one run a body of students like StuCo? What does one do as president? As every question has an answer, these have a multitude of answers. As of the 2021-22 school year, we here at NSA have a great StuCo leader, or, is it Stucco? StuCo is short for Student Council, which is the body of students here at NSA who not only put out a newsletter monthly, lead youth groups, and such, but also create, plan, and host many of the events you see around NSA. But back to the question, and as every good question has an answer, Caleb, the president of StuCo, said: “Well… Stucco is wall texturing, isn’t it? So I’m gonna have to go with StuCo on this one.” StuCo it is then.
Read MoreEveryone has a story, and Mrs. Kathrine Clark’s is quite unique. Though she is now a middle school and high school history teacher, she was once a student at NorthStar Academy! As a child, Mrs. Clark lived as a missionary kid with her parents in Chad, Africa. She went to NorthStar Academy for her junior and senior year and graduated in 2013. When she attended, the school was quite different than it was today. Students downloaded their lessons in PDF format and worked offline. When they were done, they emailed their work to their teacher and the teacher graded it. However in the later part of Mrs. Clark’s time at NSA, lessons were switched over to an LMS system called Brainhoney, a precursor to Buzz.
Read MoreWhat is it that makes the Christian environment so magnetic and attractive? In my years at NorthStar Academy, I have found that the answer to this lies in the heart of the school itself: its teachers and management. The encouragement from the teachers and their daily efforts to intertwine Christianity into their lessons truly reflects the love of Christ. This is a reflection that I had not taken the time to think about before I had the opportunity to interview one of NSA’s newest teachers, Mr. Ayub. Mr. Ayub’s story and how he came to be a part of the NSA staff reflects his deep appreciation and sentiment for the unique love of Christ present in this school.
Read MoreThe 2020-21 school year was full of uncertainty and adventure for many brick-and-mortar students around the globe. With so much still going on in the world, teachers, students, and staff alike found themselves still learning how to adjust to an online learning environment. Here at NorthStar Academy, students continued to relish in their own personal academic successes. This success is largely due to the teachers -- whose patience and dedication inspires their students, no matter the situation. One of these teachers is the Navigator’s own faculty advisor: Mrs. April Meyer.
Read MoreA day in life looks different for every single person, and that could not be truer than it is here at NSA. Every student is different and holds a unique place in the diverse and very special student body we have. To demonstrate the sheer uniqueness of the students here at NSA, one student from each section of NSA’s student body: two high schoolers, a middle schooler, and an elementary student, were asked questions about what they feel their place is at NSA as well as general inquiries about their daily life.
Read MoreIn my last article, “One Student Two experiences,” I learned about a student’s perspective of both high school and middle school, as Elizabeth is in BOTH 8th and 9th grades at once! This article is going to focus on the teacher’s perspective of teaching students in both middle school and high school. Give it up for Mrs. Anderson!
Read MoreNorthstar Academy houses many students of all different grade levels. Some students have been with NSA since they were in elementary school, and others have only experienced the high school or middle school version of Northstar. Today I’m going to be telling you the story of an NSAer who is experiencing both middle school at NSA and high school… at the same time!
Read MoreThere is a great difference between high schoolers and elementary schoolers. Speaking as a high schooler, I know that elementary kids seem so young to me. When I was an elementary schooler, I know that high schoolers seemed so much older and bigger. So much happens in between those times. One of NSA’s teachers, Mrs. Katie Dunlap, experiences this every day. Mrs. Dunlap teaches both high school and elementary classes.
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