"Stealing Bricks"

 

Recently I had the opportunity to take a group of HCA student leaders to a Student Leadership and Community Service Forum sponsored by William Jewell College in Liberty.  This was a full day of keynotes and breakout sessions, giving our students the opportunity to hear from a wide variety of leaders in the non-profit service community in Kansas City.  One of the organizations there was the Youth Volunteer Corps or Kansas City, one of the organizations featured on our HCA Serves website.

What I found most interesting (and encouraging) was the conversation in the car on the way home.  Apparently one of the speakers in a breakout session made it very clear that she did not come from "a faith-based perspective" in her approach to community service.  Yet she made repeated references to "justice", "evil", and "right & wrong".  Our students quickly discerned that, apart from a worldview that is built on absolute truth based upon the character of a sovereign God, those terms are essentially meaningless and become nothing more than opinion.  I reminded them of one of the speakers from our Understanding the Times class who talks about people "stealing bricks from our worldview in order to build their own." 

It is this worldview training that is at the core of everything we do at HCA, beginning with youngest preschool child to the student who will be graduating in a few months.  What an encouragement it is when we get evidence like this that our students "get it"!

HCA Serves

Some 50 HCA junior high students and another dozen moms gathered at HCA West after school on Wednesday, December 11th, to partner with YouthFront and Food for the Hungry to prepare more than 4,000 meals.  After a brief presentation on the problem of hunger both here in KC and around the world, students were organized in teams to pack sealed bags of soy, rice, vitamins, and vegetables to be shipped to areas where Food for the Hungry is active.

Enjoy the sights and sounds of HCA students serving together!

Winterim 2014

The second edition of Winterim at HCA will take place Jan 7-10, 2014 immediately following Christmas break.   Winterim gives our high school students an opportunity to explore a wide range of different classes not normally offered.  Winterim is part of a larger effort to encourage HCA students to recognize God’s call on their lives ... a call to use the gifts and talents he has given them to His glory ... by Him, to Him, for Him! This was one of the highlights for the school year for our students last year, and we would love to have you be involved. 

But you say "I'm not a teacher ... What can I teach?"  Whatever you have a passion about and is something that would interest students is a possible topic.  We want to place an emphasis on practical, hands-on type classes ... Last year we had painting and ceramics, landscaping, big game hunting, fishing, cultural dance, sewing, culinary arts, model bridge building, fitness training, CPR, photography, videography, songwriting, public service and much more.  We have new classes scheduled this year .... Robotics, cake decorating, community service, creating an iPap app, police work and criminal investigations, and more.  Our students have requested courses like home improvement/handyman skills, simple auto maintenance, fire arms safety, martial arts, nursing, photo editing, graphic arts, website design, cosmetology, fashion design and more.  

We will have a schedule with a variety of approximately 1-hour time slots ... You can teach a 4-day (Tuesday through Friday) class or a 2-day (T/Th or W/F), whatever best fits your topic or schedule.  We can accommodate requests for morning or afternoon classes.  If you need a longer time slot, we can even consider combining a couple of slots. 

Would you be willing to be a part of this special event for HCA students?  Or do you know someone who might be interested; we would love to involve the larger community in this event.  This is a wonderful opportunity to be a mentor for a great group of young people.  Prayerfully consider your participation in this event.  To volunteer to be one of the teachers for this week, simply complete this brief form and submit.  We need your response soon (by November 15th) so we can finalize scheduling for this event to make it a memorable one for our students.

HCA @ Old Settlers Parade 2013

Dozens of HCA families turned out on a hot Saturday in downtown Olathe to "turn the town burgundy" for the annual Old Settlers Day parade.  This 115-year-old tradition is the largest parade in Kansas, and HCA made a great showing.  Thank you to all the volunteers who manned the HCA booth and to those who worked tirelessly to put together our beautiful float.  To get a flavor of this event, you can check out this selection of photos and watch the video below:



And a little a bonus coverage:

'Leading Ladies' Earn Superior Rating at State!

Congratulations to Mrs. Kasey Johnson and the HCA Leading Ladies who returned from the KSHSAA State Musical Festival in Wichita on April 27th with a "Superior" rating, scoring 78 out of a possible 80 points!  They performed earlier in the regionals at Benedictine College in Atchison.  You can watch a video of that performance below.

Technology Update

It's been a few weeks since we gave you an update on the progress we are making with Technology Integration.  In that update we talked about integrating 21st Century skills (Collaboration, Creativity, Creative Thinking, and Communication) into the "5th C" - Content.  Anthony Brenchley, our Emerging Technologies Librarian, and I are meeting with selected HCA West staff this week to plan some projects/activities what will specifically implement these concepts as a pilot for our 1-1 initiative beginning next January.

We are also talked about some of the infrastructure investment we are making at HCA West in advance of that initiative, including increasing our internet bandwidth capability and installing some exciting next products from Lightspeed Systems.  As our previous update explained, these services will provide advanced level content filtering and monitoring, mobile device management, and a collaborative workspace called My Big Campus.  We are also planning some infrastructure investment at the HCA East to increase the reliability of the wireless service there as well.

We just completed the initial installation of this infrastructure earlier this week and will be working throughout the spring and summer to get everything configured to run smoothly.  First impressions are, well, impressive.  I am excited about the new capability these products offer.  I am including a few short videos that will help explain what these products actually can do.  I would also encourage you to come to our last Town Hall meeting of the spring ... Thursday, May 2nd at 7:00 PM.  Use this link to signup for this Town Hall.

HCA Promotional Video

Enjoy the following promotional video, produced by HCA Junior Max Hammons, which premiered at the annual HCA Auction on Saturday, February 9th.

HCA Students Excel Outside the Classroom

HCA students are pretty busy in our community outside the regular school day.  I am happy to highlight three students:

Sophomore Michael Alemayehu was a member of Russ Miller's bridge building class during Winterim.  Students in the class learning a little about bridge design (tension and compression) and built bridges according to the rules of  Kansas Society of Professional Engineers annual competition.  In this competition (Saturday, February 2nd), bridges are weighed and then loads applied until the bridges failed.  The bridges were then ranked according to their efficiency (load/weight); in other words, how many times its own weight a bridge supported.

Over 80 students from high schools in the eastern Kansas region were represented, including St. Thomas Aquinas, Gardner-Edgerton, and several of the Blue Valley high schools.  Michael's bridge supported over 1,000 times its own weight and finished 13th in the competition. Before and after photos of Michael's bridge are shown below.

Junior Anna Lipscomb was recently named a Distinguished Finalist for the state of Kansas in the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program, conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals.  Anna was recognize for her work in raising $90,000 over the past four years to help build four orphanages in Haiti and her numerous speaking engagements where she tells how God has used her to help orphaned children in Haiti and inspires others to help make a difference for those in need.

Senior Abbie Schutte recently submitted an article to a new magazine, Kansas City Metro Cares, a publication that focuses on non-profit communication and awareness in our community.  In the February issue, Abbie talks about the HCA partnership with Mission Southside where HCA students plan and implement a weekly neighborhood Bible study for elementary children in a Gardner neighborhood.  These ministry is now entering it's third year, and many relationships have been formed during that time.  You can view the newest edition of Kansas City Metro Cares here, and look for Abbie's article on page 17.  We also have printed copies of the magazine available in the West Campus office.

This a just a small sampling of the impact HCA students are having in our community ... these are just the ones that came across my desk this morning!  I am so thankful to be a part of a school that is actively preparing its students to be servant leaders to the glory of God.

The President's Address 2013

Enjoy this "unofficial" video invitation to the HCA President's Address on Monday, January 28th at 6:30 PM at the West Campus. We hope to see you there.

Sights and Sounds of Winterim 2013

Winterim 2013 came to a successful conclusion with our closing assembly Monday afternoon where students had the opportunity to share some of what they learned during Winterim Week.  We had reports from a variety of classes ... videography, songwriting, worship, Broadway workshop, sewing, culinary arts, art and crafts, improvisational theater, readers' theater, bridge building, and a computer 3D modeling course (see graphic above).  In all 94 students we enrolled in some 35 different topics taught by teachers, parents, and friends of HCA.  We began each day with worship and a devotional, all geared to encouraged students to understand God's call in theirs lives, to "find the work they can't not do", living a life of meaning and fulfillment.

Enjoy the photos (and video) below that give a taste of Winterim 2013.