🧑‍🚀NSA Culture🧑‍🚀

NorthStar Academy is constantly adding, revising, and improving their courses. There are already an incredible number of courses offered at the school; however, this year, several new classes have been added to the options that high school students can choose from. 

Imagine showing up to a club meeting week after week… except you were the only member. The chairs are empty, the books are unread, and the game pieces are yet to be moved. That doesn’t sound much like a club, does it? According to the Oxford Dictionary, a club is, “An organization for people who share an interest or do a sport or activity together” (Oxford University Press). There is a purpose for meeting, and it is not about the activity. It’s about the people.

“I just wanna be adopted by anyone and everyone willing to adopt me. I wanna see how many NSA parents I can have.” Yes, you have read that sentence right. No, it is not talking about actual adoptions. Confused yet? Do not worry, we all are. Join me in my quest of trying to explain NSA families in a way that makes sense - and based on the fact that even the main participants are confused, it will not be an easy one.

NSA offers many excellent and unique ways to engage with the community and become more involved in student leadership. One of these opportunities is to become a club leader. Students in this position coordinate, oversee, and are regularly active in the club they lead. But what exactly are these leaders required to do, and what are some benefits of becoming a club leader?

“Oh no,” I groaned, staring at my computer in disbelief.  It was my first year at NorthStar Academy, and I felt overwhelmed by all the new skills I needed to learn.  As the 2024 school year kicks off and courses begin, new students stream into our school.  A major problem they face is plugging into NSA’s online community.  Being part of NSA’s international student body provides opportunities to connect with students worldwide.  However, the academy cannot provide a physical school building for students to meet in.  This means the school must provide alternate ways to socialize.

The world is an immense place: miles of oceans, mountains that touch the clouds, and beauty that expands across the globe. Over the past few hundred years, humans have continued investigating and discovering more of this beautiful world. That is what the Navigator staff was able to do for this article. For many students, receiving a high-quality education is difficult. However, NorthStar remedies this issue by utilizing technology to connect students and teachers via an online landscape. Additionally, NSA provides many opportunities to build and strengthen relationships in an online environment. The Navigator staff had the opportunity to learn more about the students at NorthStar and how NSA’s unique campus experience accommodates them in their home countries.

It is time for another wildlife adventure! Last year, I highlighted the wildlife encounters of the students of NSA. But, now it is time for the wildlife encounters of NSA’s faculty to shine. So, prepare yourselves to embark on an adventure around the world to visit the places where NSA’s faculty had some of their most notable wildlife encounters.

Here at the Navigator, we work to create enjoyable publications full of a wide variety of articles, from the informative to the humorous. But, we are still students, so we have other classes we must work on as well. Let us get a glimpse of the school lives of the Navigator staff by investigating their favorite high school courses, which are as diverse as toppings on a pizza.

2023 has been an excellent year for video games. With many extremely popular and well-made releases such as Lethal Company by Zeekers, Spider Man 2 by Insomniac, or Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian, gamers have been spoiled by the wide variety of high-quality video games that have been coming out this year. However, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (or TOTK for short) has been hailed by some as the best game of the year. But what makes the game so good, and does it have any flaws? 

Did you know that rubber bands last longer when they’re refrigerated? Probably not. That might make you wonder what else you don’t know. If you’re anything like me, you probably also don’t know that NSA offers tutoring. As I recently found out, tutoring is readily available at NSA for a wide variety of classes! 

Disclaimer: The following article is Part II of a fantasy series written by Jared L. It may contain mild fantasy darkness/violence, and/or mature topics. Reader discretion is advised.

At NorthStar Academy, there are a variety of outlets for students to follow their individual passions and practice valuable skills.  Examples include clubs, online chapel meetings, and esports teams.  However, these outlets would not be able to continue functioning the way they do today without the student council at NorthStar Academy.  While a council of students might at first seem barely related to the workings of NorthStar Academy’s student body, its members do quite a bit for the student body behind the scenes.

The first ever NorthStar Academy Christmas Art Competition is officially over! We’ve kicked off the first competition with so many wonderful art submissions. They were everything we wished for, and more! We were overwhelmed by the number of entries we received – each one creative and inspiring in its own way. Ultimately, there was one submission that stood out from the rest and had earned the judge’s hearts. Never the less, the large amounts of creativity that we were able to see in each art submission, was astonishing. This was a tough decision to make, to which had sparked some debate between the judges. 

This Christmas season, the Music Club hosted a Christmas Song Talent Competition!

Depression is “a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest” (Mayo Health Clinic). “Approximately 280 million people in the world have depression” (World Health Organization). Anyone can get depression. It can come after the death of a loved one, anxiety from school, or other external circumstances. However, depression is not the end of the road. It can be battled with hope and resilience.

During the month of October, a group of NSA students and staff traveled to Panama for a week of missions and ministry. This week would prove to be life-changing for many, including the people we served and the team members themselves.

Do you and your family have specific traditions you do every year around Christmas? For me, my family and I always go to the tree lighting on our square and go look at Christmas lights. Just like this tradition is unique to my family, so are other traditions to other countries. For example, France, Germany, and Australia all have different practices. Those countries will be our main focus. All of these countries have unique customs surrounding Christmas. Some of these practices are unique to one country or shared by many.

NorthStar Academy's Visual Arts Club provides students with hands-on art experiences through hands-on activities and artist sharing. It promotes diverse creative genres such as pottery, painting, illustration, digital art, charcoal, chalk, sculpture, and printing by encouraging innovation and competition participation. Students interested in the visual arts make up the Visual Arts Club. The Visual Arts Club's mission is to promote the arts by participating in different art contests, meetings, and events.

In ancient Egypt, Egyptians used a form of writing known as hieroglyphics - carved pictures and images that represented things or ideas. In the Western world, we do not often think of pictures as a form of writing. While some Eastern languages use symbols to indicate words, Western languages use a series of letters to make words, each of which has a unique meaning. But, as technology has continued to develop, we can now communicate with people worldwide electronically. With the rise of texting, instant messaging, and social media, it seems that a new form of modern hieroglyphics has surfaced - emojis!

Have you ever been curious as to how you start a Minecraft server or ever wanted to know more about maintaining one? This article contains the answers to both questions. The owner and manager of NorthStar's very own Minecraft SMP (Survival Multi Player) Server, Alexander M., has advice and information regarding his server and the skills and resources needed to create and maintain it. 

The Minecraft esports at NorthStar Academy have skyrocketed over the last two school years due to the actions of NorthStar Academy’s Dean of Students, Scott Berggren.  He started the first NorthStar Minecraft esports team at the start of the spring semester in 2023, after he was informed that NorthStar students had a high interest in Minecraft through a poll conducted by Chuck Deitch, who is the Administrative Director of School Programs at NorthStar Academy.  This team created by Berggren would successfully get to the championship round at a CompMC tournament between multiple different schools based all over the United States. 

The NorthStar Navigator, affectionately called the “Nav,” was established in 2006. Ever since then, it has continued to serve the student body by bringing stories of intrigue and interest to students across the globe. As NorthStar’s school newspaper, the Navigator shares the latest news about NorthStar happenings, student life, global issues, and so much more. However, the Navigator has evolved substantially as a school newspaper since 2006. So, the Nav Staff has decided to dig deep into old article archives to bring you the history of the Navigator.

Threads of messages have been a part of NSA lore from the beginning. Creative students in FirstClass and Teams have crafted dramatic stories and role plays that have gone down in history. (In fact… there’s a whole book written about it, you can check that article out here.)

For The NorthStar Navigator’s February Publication, we held a Scavenger hunt. We got a total of twelve responses, and everyone did so well! However, there can only be a few winners…

I’m sure that anyone reading this has, at some point in their lives, been trying to study and had trouble trying to focus. If this happened to you, I’m sure you were told, or maybe you found out on your own, that music helps people focus. I’d even be willing to bet that you were told classical music helps make you smarter while studying, but how much of this is true? Why does music help us when we study? Are certain types of music better or more helpful to people who are studying? Let’s make a deal: you keep reading, and I’ll answer all those questions above. 

In August of 2022, NSA changed the structure of Teams. In the months since, a couple of students have cried tears of outrage at the changes. For some, you might be wondering why Teams was changed at all. And, of course, there are probably some of you who are completely unfazed. Nonetheless, there’s a bit that can be said about the situation. 

Is it good for goodbyes to be sad? As a TCK (Third Culture Kid), goodbyes are a normal part of my life, but that does not mean they get any easier. As a Christ follower, I know that goodbyes are never final, but even a “goodbye for now” is still hard. No matter who you are, goodbyes are hard. Goodbyes never get any easier, and sometimes it is ok to just let the tears flow.

Welcome to Part 2! If you haven’t read Part 1, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this article to see the link to the first part where we meet The StuCo Coordinator and The Leadership 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 2 of this article, I’ll be talking about The Outreach Team and The Communications Team.

Northstar Academy is twenty five years old, but did you know we haven’t had a mascot until very recently? That’s right, and today we are going to learn a little bit more about him! The Navigator thanks Mrs. Armstrong for representing Navi during this interview.

We’ve written about students. We’ve written about teachers. We’ve written about administration… but somehow we’ve overlooked a very important category! The Navigator hasn’t written about pets! I have taken it upon myself to fix this grievous error and introduce some of our four legged friends to the world. World… meet the Pets of NSA!