Explore — NorthStar Navigator

Dashing Through the Snow

I don’t know about any of you, but I’m pretty excited for what the next few months have in store – snow! I know snow brings mixed reactions from people. Some may think it’s the best thing ever and just can’t wait to go outside and play in it (like me). Others are perfectly content to stay inside and watch the flakes come spiraling down from the heavens in the comfort of the living room with a blazing fire, within-reach hot drink, and a spellbinding book. None of the above would apply to those who don’t predictably receive snow! Let’s take a closer look at what snow looks like for NSAers.

Popular, 🧑‍🚀NSA CultureEIC NSADecember 9, 20222022-2023, December 2022 Publication

Food for Thought: Christmas Edition

In honor of the upcoming Christmas festivities, I thought I’d take an unconventional spin with this article. Bear with me as I become a talk show host and interview food which most definitely can speak with me. Excuse me while I grab my heels and Christmas sweater…

Happy Holidays folks, and welcome to Food for Thought, where we interview the world’s leading cuisine to learn about their finer points. Today we have some classic Christmas friends from across the globe – please welcome Gingerbread House, Cinnamon Roll, Christmas Cookie, Panettone, Stollen Bread, White Fudge, and Christmas Pudding!

Meet the 22-23 Student Council! - Part 3

Welcome to Part 3! If you haven’t read Parts 1 and 2, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this article to see the links to the first and second parts where we meet The StuCo Coordinator, The Leadership Team, The Outreach Team, and The Communications Team!

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 3 of this article, I’ll be talking about The Representative Team.

The Game is Afoot: NSA’s New Esports Team is Here!

What is an eSports team, and why are they so popular? That question actually has an easy answer. An eSports team is a team that plays video games competitively. The name eSports makes sense when broken down. The games are video games, hence the e is for electronic. The players form a team and play matches against other teams, thus, sports have been added to the name as well. As for the second part of the question, video games are obviously a lot of fun, so who wouldn’t want to be able to play competitively with friends? The eSports team allows players to make new friends, show off their skills in certain video games, and compete against lots of other players for a chance to lead the school to an eSports victory.

🧑‍🚀NSA CultureEIC NSADecember 9, 20222022-2023, December 2022 Publication

A Reflection on Halloween

A lot of people this past Halloween season did not celebrate Halloween. According to Focus on the Family, some people believe that Halloween is a worship of the devil. So, should Christians celebrate Halloween? What do NorthStar students think about Halloween? I for one have been on both sides. For 10 years of my life, Halloween was a holiday that was never celebrated in my house. We would never give candy to people. We would turn all the lights out to make it seem like my family was not home. My family moved overseas when I was 10, and we met other Christian families who did celebrate Halloween. Their ideas influenced my parents; now, we do go trick-or-treating. So, I do not believe that celebrating Halloween is right or wrong.

Introducing…the Alumni Association

Anna’s senior basement is now reality – well, a pretty close version of it is. Several years ago on First Class (the old NSA social platform before Teams), Anna, then a sixth grader, did some renovating to what has come to be known as the basement, a space just to keep the much-loved seniors around, virtually speaking of course, complete with ice cream, pillows, cobwebs, and rotten food. The new alumni association may or may not have these comforts, but it certainly has members. NSA home office staff reached out to graduates back to 2013, and currently, 47 former NSAers call themselves alumni association members. Through the association, which uses a Discord server, NSA alumni have the opportunity to keep their iNSAne memories alive from their time here, take advantage of networking opportunities, and continue to grow the lifelong relationships they’ve made.

🧑‍🚀NSA CultureEIC NSAOctober 7, 20222022-2023, October 2022 Publication

Meet the 22-23 Student Council! - Part 1

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.

NorthStar’s Founding Story according to an NSA Veteran

NorthStar 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.

Mission Briefing, Welcome Committee

Welcome. This is the mission briefing. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to aid and spread the word of the Welcome Committee in whatever way you can. Before we go any further, let's dive into the mission context and details. The Welcome committee is often overlooked. As Aragorn says in the Lord of the Rings: “Deeds will not be less valiant because they go unpraised.” They are a group within NSA dedicated to making people feel welcome. They are geared toward people new to NSA and Teams, so they are at their strongest at the beginning in the year. But by no means does that mean they simply fade after that. Far from it. This means you will be interacting with them long after the first couple months.

Popular, 🧑‍🚀NSA CultureEIC NSAOctober 7, 20222022-2023, October 2022 Publication

The Languages of NorthStar Academy

NorthStar Academy, a unique organization that spans the globe, is based in the United States but offers schooling worldwide. With this comes some challenges that in-person schools don’t have. However, things such as the abundance of different cultures and languages present at NSA can also serve as incredible opportunities for connection and interaction.

Of Mages, Kings, and Polaris Academy

Would 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!

Popular, 👤NSA People, 🧑‍🚀NSA CultureEIC NSAApril 8, 20222021-2022, April 2022 Issue

Leading Together - A Closer Look at Club Leadership

I’m sure that most of you are plenty aware of the existence of this not-so-little part of NorthStar: clubs! Many of you have participated in live club calls and submitted entries for activities and (hopefully) had a lot of fun with these things! But it takes a lot of work to keep NorthStar’s unique clubs running smoothly and fun for everyone, and so it would stand to reason that a unique leadership style is required. Let’s take a closer look at the different kinds of leaders it takes to make clubs click!

🧑‍🚀NSA CultureEIC NSAApril 8, 20222021-2022, April 2022 Issue

2022 Pastimes

What is a recreational activity? It's basically a hobby, something you enjoy doing to get your mind off other things. For some it's dirt biking, other it's spying on people. Some people enjoy sports, others make potatoing a hobby. This is a new year, 2022, to be exact, and if you’re looking for things to do, there is always something. In my eyes, there is no excuse to be bored all the time.

Popular, 🧑‍🚀NSA CultureEIC NSAFebruary 11, 20222021-2022, February 2022 Issue

NSA’s Gaming Club

There are various clubs at NorthStar Academy. There’s the drama club, the creative writing club, the cooking club, and many others. One of these is a relatively new club called the gaming club. The gaming club started in late 2021, but it is already quite large with almost 85 members in it! The student leaders are two high school boys named Spencer and Gabriel and the teacher overseer is Mrs. Clark.

🧑‍🚀NSA CultureEIC NSAFebruary 11, 20222021-2022, February 2022 Issue

A Silver Lining for a Second Semester

We all know that feeling—the feeling of one semester finally wrapped up only to be met by another semester—and a fresh 18 weeks of work staring back at us from behind our screens. The novelty of our new classes has waned away, and the excitement of a new school year is all but depleted. We are left with what most of us would call a “new semester slump.” The holidays are gone, and spring break is still so far. If this sounds like something that is running through your mind, fear not, for we are about to find a silver lining in our new set of clouds.

Popular, 🗣️Advice, 🧑‍🚀NSA CultureEIC NSAFebruary 11, 20222021-2022, February 2022 Issue

Little Dreamers

There 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!

Popular, 🧑‍🚀NSA Culture, 👤NSA PeopleEIC NSAFebruary 11, 20222021-2022, February 2022 Issue

Christmas Around the World

Christmas has been celebrated since 336 AD. For most, it’s a holiday that brings people and families together, it allows people to serve and give to each other, and it gives us an opportunity to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Elements and different celebrations of Christmas and Jesus’ birth can be seen across the world during the holidays, but how do different countries and cultures celebrate Christmas?

🔎Informational, 🧑‍🚀NSA Culture, 🗓️SeasonalEIC NSADecember 10, 20212021-2022, December 2021 Issue

StuCo in a Nutshell

Known to most as “Stuco,” the Student Council is responsible for most of the meetings and events you see around Teams and NSA in general. Outside of NSA Connects, which are run by teachers and admin staff, you may have seen other events related to the start of a new school year. These events, for example, the Back to School Bash, are purely student-organized and run. Stuco’s setup is simple; students here on NSA take on various roles and responsibilities, and among the ranks, each member has a specific job while also helping out whenever it is needed. Dorshea, the Stuco Vice President said, “We're all like a big family and we all have our specific roles and jobs to do. “ The Stuco has most areas of NSA life covered, from special projects to ads and working with the admin staff.

Popular, 🧑‍🚀NSA Culture, 🎉NSA EventsEIC NSAOctober 8, 2021October 2021 Issue, 2021-2022

NorthStar Through the Ages

From using dial-up internet to having a meeting with teachers across the world in an instant, NSA’s rich past is worth a review. The history of submitting school work and talking to fellow students at NorthStar is quite extensive and something many people are unfamiliar with. How did NSA begin as a school? What was the FirstClass system? Where will we be in the near future? A look back at the ancient memoirs of students and teachers answers these questions. The Navigator staff invites you on a journey through time (or the ages) showcasing NorthStar’s spectacular history.

A Day in the Life: Off-Screen

A 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.

👤NSA People, 🧑‍🚀NSA CultureEIC NSAApril 16, 2021April 2021 Issue, 2020-2021