Education

Spring Valley Golden Gala

Story by Vicki Swetnam

Spring Valley Academy (SVA) hosted “The Golden Gala” last fall, as the school celebrated its 50th anniversary. “The past several years, we’ve held the auction at off-campus locations,” says Darren Wilkins, principal. “But with the 50th anniversary and our new Worship and Performing Arts Center completed, we really wanted to hold the event at the school.”

The last four galas have raised money for the just-completed first phase of the new center, and this event gave SVA the opportunity to show gala sponsors, donors and volunteers how their gifts were used. With the first phase of this new facility costing around $5.5 million, the gala was one of the major donors to this campaign, contributing more than $1 million.

Math teacher D’Anya Brezzell (right) shares her thoughts about Kelli Raí Collins’ new devotional book.

Story by Salena Featherstone

Kelli Raí Collins has been the data specialist at Potomac Conference's Takoma Academy (TA) for five years, and is a proud parent of three: current TA student Solomon (’20), TA alum Zoie (’18) and Oakwood University (Ala.) student Mykel. Collins, a third generation Seventh-day Adventist, has always been dedicated to giving her children the Christian education she received.

Manassas students work together to catch and study bugs.

Story by Tiffany Doss

Catching butterflies, looking at worms under a microscope, constructing forest homes and digging in dirt happen to be part of the Virginia-based Manassas Adventist Preparatory School’s (MAPS) curriculum this year. As part of a pilot program, students in kindergarten and first grade are taking time to explore God’s second book of nature as part of a new forestry class.

Gustavorezende on Pixabay

Story by Dave Morgan
Photo by Gustavorezende on Pixabay

March 1 and 2, the Elementary Musicfest is open to students grades 5–10. This includes homeschool, Adventist school and public school students. Musicfest is under the direction of Lawrence Galera, director of music at BMA. The two-day event includes vocal and instrumental workshops, as well as group performance and an afternoon showcase of individual performance. For more information about how your school, student or co-op can participate, contact info@bma.us.

Washington Adventist University

Editorial by Weymouth Spence

Blessings abound here at Washington Adventist University (WAU) in Takoma Park, Md., where we strive to engage minds and transform lives for all of God’s children.

On our campus, just minutes from our nation’s capital city, this includes nearly 160 international students from more than 50 countries, including Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, China, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Kosovo, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Sierra Leone, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.