🗞️Staff Stories🗞️

I never knew I was going to join NorthStar Academy. In fact, I never knew online school was an option. I never knew that this event in life would lead me to one of the sweetest communities I have ever seen. In the grand year of 2020, when all earth shut down, I was presented with the opportunity of learning this new format. Four years later, I remain in NorthStar Academy and do not plan on leaving anytime soon. However, the question remains: why is this such a good school?

Over the summer, the Navigator dealt with some copyright issues over an image. The Navigator took special precautions to make sure this never happened again. Jared L. and I were given responsibility for this job, but what does that mean?

Growing up is hard. With youth comes unconditional nurture, but no knowledge. With adolescence comes knowledge, but a sudden distaste for the safety we once craved. Exhilarated by the vast expanse of opportunity that lies before us, we oftentimes rush off without looking back. We get so enthralled in the excitement of the future, we can forget to thank the people who helped us along the way.

When I was growing up, the idea of homeschooling or online school was foreign to me. I attended a public elementary school. Every day I would wake up and go to school from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon. I did this from kindergarten to well into my first year of middle school. However, along with the rest of the world, my life changed in 2020.

If you had told me two years ago I would be attending an online school, of my own accord, I would have laughed in your face. However, I wouldn’t be where I am today without the absolute blessing that NorthStar Academy has been in my life. Albeit unexpected, I am able to look back and say that this was truly one of the best decisions I could have made for myself. 

“Yes!” I screamed, leaping away from the computer to hug my parents. It was April 2023, and I had received a Teams message informing me of my first-place win in the Creative Writing Club’s fiction contest. My dark fantasy short story, “The Quiz,” was to be published in the NorthStar Navigator, the school’s online newspaper.

Mrs. Meyer, the teacher advisor for The Navigator, is the guiding force behind NorthStar’s student newspaper. While she works behind the scenes, she is instrumental in coordinating, directing, uplifting, and leading the staff. So, The Navigator staff would like to take a moment to thank her for everything she has done this year.

Hello everyone.  My name is Alexander.  My family chose to enroll me in NorthStar Academy for three reasons.  The first reason why I joined NSA was that my parents wanted me to go to an accredited high school, which helps with getting into college.  The second reason I joined NSA was that my mom and dad wanted me to go to a Christian school like NSA.  The last reason I joined NSA was that my parents liked the curriculum that NSA uses.

For me, NorthStar has been an essential part of my schooling experience. I live overseas and travel a lot. Sometimes I need to be flexible when I do school. NorthStar enables me to work anywhere at any time in basically any place I need. As a result, I can be very efficient in how I do my work, while also being flexible so that I can prioritize other things in my life that are important.

Years ago, I never would have thought I would ever find myself joining a school newspaper. Yet, that is exactly what I decided to do when I joined the Navigator. I have learned much more in my time with the Navigator than I ever imagined I would, and I am so grateful for that.

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.

I know what you did on December 31, well, not exactly, but a rough idea. You probably toasted a chilled glass of something sparkling, and resolved to some sort of ritual that would lead to a better you in 2024. Well, you aren’t alone. Millions of people around the world participate in this tradition, either scribbling resolutions down on a crumpled napkin, or in an embellished notebook they purchased for the occasion. Well, the Navigator staff also participated in this ritual, and shared some of the resolutions they made for 2024. 

From 2018-2020, the editor-in-chief at the Navigator was Savannah L. Not only was Savannah the editor-in-chief, but also one of the founders of the Navigator class at NorthStar. Since graduating, Savannah now attends Mount St. Mary’s college in Maryland. It has been four years since Savannah left NorthStar, and now is as good a time as any to catch up.

Christmas is nearly upon us. This year, let us take a look at what the members of the Navigator team are planning to do to celebrate the holiday!

The Navigator ended in June, and all the writers went their separate ways. Sometimes it's easy to forget that people we know from NSA have lives outside of school. In this article, let’s check on what the Nav writers were doing this offseason.

This is my third year on the Navigator. As such, I have already written two articles about my experience at NorthStar and on the Navigator. For my 9th grade year, my first year on the Nav, I wrote about how NorthStar gives me the flexibility I need in my life, while still providing a rigid-enough structure to compensate for my busy brain. In my second story article, I wrote about how NorthStar has given me the community that I had always wanted. Since I’ve already talked about NSA’s social, spiritual, and academic aspects, I want to make sure that this article covers something different. 

Once upon a blustery November morning seven years ago, a barely 11-year-old sixth grader walked into the math classroom at her local Christian school. She had been attending this school since kindergarten and had never known anything different as far as school goes. School, at the time, meant navigating a (comparatively) small, combined middle and high school campus on the middle school side of the building, worrying about being late to class, trying to make straight A’s to avoid parents’ displeasure, and juggling changing friendships. One word can connotate a lot, right?

I have existed on this planet for fifteen years now. And though it’s been a year since I wrote my first staff story, I must admit I still don’t like doing it. What is there to say now? I don’t know, and that’s why I’m writing this extremely close to the due date. 

My NSA story has not been a fairytale, far from it to be honest, but I have enjoyed my time at NorthStar. This is my third year at NSA, but only my second year taking classes only from NorthStar. The three-year journey until now has been full of hardships, but there are many fun memories. My tenth grade year in particular has been full of changes, yet there has been a constant, the Navigator.

You can describe me with the 4 F’s and two P’s. Faith, Family, Flag, Freedom, Protection, and Procrastination. I know, it's an underwhelming end to such a virtuous list. You may know me as the funny guy in that obscure school newspaper. You may be saying “that man is cringe” or something similar. You might even know me as the guy who was active on Teams a year ago then disappeared forever. In the case of the latter, I don’t know why you still remember me, my greatest contribution to NSA was participating in a meme war. But whether I’m remembered as King Cringe or the Chick-fil-A guy, I am leaving…for good, I’m never coming back.

For most, the Covid-19 pandemic has been nothing but trouble. The deadly disease has wreaked havoc all over the world. I, however, have gotten something positive out of the pandemic: if it hadn't been for the lockdowns, I may never have found NSA.

This is an allegorical story of growing up, moving from childhood to adulthood, and being a senior. The piece is inspired by John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim Progress.” This is part of my NSA Story. 

Over the years, my school life/situation has encountered many changes. Maybe my school situation had to change more than the average person’s, but maybe not. Whatever it is, I think it’s been great that my life has changed so much and given me some odd experiences. 

This year has been my first year writing for the Navigator. I’ll be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect before I decided to join. Since I didn’t know exactly what to expect, I decided not to join last year, and now I regret not joining sooner. My goal with this article is to make sure others who are hesitant to join don’t make the same mistake I did. In this article, I will tell the story of how I decided to join the Navigator, and what my experience has been like. I will also provide information about how you can experience a Navigator live session in person.

Well, I guess I made it. We are coming very close to the end of the school year, and to the end of a very significant stage of my life. With the chaos of life and schoolwork, I’m not sure if I’ve actually taken a moment to really take a breath and consider that fact. High school has been a wild ride. Was it at all like High School Musical? No, but that’s probably for the best.

As a teacher, I should be excited as we come to the beginning of June–cheering for the seniors who have completed their high school journey. But this year, that celebration is mixed with a bit of reserve.

I’m not gonna lie. It took me a while to get started on this article. Usually, when it’s time to start working on our new publication, I excitedly start looking for people to interview or documents to read. But for this article, I had no one to interview, nor any reason to lurk around Teams for Word docs. I had to write about myself.

My journey, or might I say, voyage, has been a highlight of my time at NSA. The NSS Navigator has been a good ship, seaworthy, and hasn’t let me down. It can support its weight, it leaks at times, cracks form, but if you keep a cool head, it's nothing you can’t overcome. Thankfully, my fellow crewmates are the best in the business. We set out from Port North with a goal, to deliver news to the four corners of NorthStar, and I think we’ve done that. However, the voyage is nearly at its end.

All year long, students get to read the fabulous articles that the Navigator Staff writes every publication. However, rarely do you get to see the real people behind the black-colored pixel letters on your screen. This has been especially true for me. As the Editor-in-Chief for the Navigator, my main job is to publish the articles and update the website. As a result, you don’t get to see me pop up here very often. However, for this article, I want to explain how much NorthStar means to me.

High school has been the best years of my life. Don’t get me wrong, it’s also been the most stressful years of my life, but the best years, nonetheless. As my high school journey comes to a close and I get ready to finish the last chapter of my NSA story, which I’ve creatively titled Senior Year, I’ve felt so thankful. Has NSA made me want to scream and cry and rip my hair out from time to time? Yes. Have I cried consistently during every math class I’ve taken here? Also, yes. But I wouldn’t be who I am today if it had not been for NSA.