Seven students to graduate from Ambassadors for Christ Academy
Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/61625/
BENTONVILLE — On high school graduation night, a senior typically waits his turn in a rather long line to walk across the stage to receive his diploma, then returns to his seat to watch the rest of his classmates receive their diplomas.
However, with seven people in their graduating class, the seniors of Ambassadors for Christ Academy will receive their diplomas tonight in a graduation ceremony that reflects the small-school atmosphere they said they have come to know and value.
Class valedictorian Brandon Burns said the kind of relationships he has built with his classmates and teachers is something not easily found in large schools.
“ We get to know each other really well and can pick up on each other’s emotions, ” Burns said. “ And our teachers all know our strong points and weak points, and they can help us with what we need. ”
Senior Luke Heffron said, “ It’ll be nice to come back in five years or so and know some people here. ”
Heffron also said having a small class also has several advantages. The class toured the nation’s capital with U. S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., while on their six-day senior trip to Washington, D. C., and five East Coast states.
Having a small class can also prove useful while in the classroom, senior Derek Kosina said.
“ Classes are more like a discussion than a lecture, ” Kosina said. “ When our class size used to be 20 people, that didn’t work too well. ”
Taylor Severs, an Ambassadors for Christ Academy alumnus, returned to the school last fall, after graduating from Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, to teach ninthgrade logic and seventh-grade history.
“ This is where I wanted to teach, and if I wasn’t here, I probably would be doing something else, ” Severs said. “ It was never my intention to teach in public schools. ”
Severs graduated from the academy in 2003 with nine people in his class.
One-year exchange students Ana Garcia from Venezuela and Sara Rosenau from Germany, both in the graduating class, were placed at Ambassadors for Christ by their exchange companies. Both girls said they did not expect to go to a small school in America.
“ In Germany, our courses are strict and limited, so in America, I was interested in taking some of the elective courses, but ACA was so small they didn’t have a lot of those, ” Rosenau said.
Garcia attended a slightly larger private school before coming to Bentonville. “(The small class ) was hard to get used to in the beginning, but now, after getting to know all of them, it’s a lot of fun, ” she said.
Many of the seniors agreed the downsides of going to a small school include the lack of school football games and a school prom.
Thursday morning, the seniors quickly ran through the graduation ceremony’s order of events, including a duet by Burns and salutatorian Hannah Welshenbaugh, a picture slide show, and the turning of the tassels by the seniors’ parents.
The class of 2008 is the 12 th graduating class from the academy, on Ford Springs Road off Benton County Road 40.
In Benton County, Rogers High School has the most graduating seniors with 724, followed by Bentonville High School with 625 graduates.
The approximate number of graduating seniors from other Benton County high schools are as follows: 40 from Decatur High School, 54 from the Ozark Adventist Academy, 91 from Gentry High School, 119 from Gravette High School and 265 from Siloam Springs High School.