02.12.2019 Views

CHCA Eagle's Eye 2014

Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy Eagles Eye 2014

Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy Eagles Eye 2014

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

The Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy Magazine Summer <strong>2014</strong><br />

Cover story:<br />

The Amazing World<br />

of Intercession<br />

article on page 2


<strong>2014</strong> Eagle’s <strong>Eye</strong><br />

Volume 18<br />

Editor:<br />

Jennifer Murphy<br />

Lead Photographer:<br />

Judi Alvarado<br />

Promise Statement<br />

Centered in the shared love of Christ,<br />

Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy is the college-preparatory,<br />

preschool through grade 12 independent school<br />

that inspires and challenges students to discover, hone,<br />

and steward their one-of-a-kind gifts<br />

as they come to know themselves as distinct<br />

and unconditionally loved creations of God.<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong>’s vibrant, multi-denominational family of learners<br />

creates a sheltering—but not sheltered—<br />

environment where, supporting each other and guided<br />

by expert Christian teachers,<br />

students wrestle with increasingly complex,<br />

timeless, essential questions in order<br />

to strengthen their minds and their faith.<br />

Beginning with the end in mind, <strong>CHCA</strong> graduates<br />

young adults fully prepared to succeed in college and beyond;<br />

Contributors:<br />

Judi Alvarado<br />

Todd Bacon<br />

Pamela Bailey<br />

Liz Bronson ‘00<br />

Julie Carnes<br />

Cindy Coggins<br />

Julie Dietrich<br />

Wendy Easterday<br />

Christina Guggenberger<br />

Jane Haslem<br />

Susan Jung<br />

Jennifer Kaufman ‘01<br />

Dan Ledbetter (photography)<br />

Amy Lutts<br />

Morgan Massa ‘14<br />

Dean Nicholas<br />

Molly Packer ‘10<br />

Casey (Sutherly) Purnhagen<br />

Mona Summers<br />

Lance Webel<br />

Lauren Wills<br />

Tracy Wolcott<br />

Eagle’s <strong>Eye</strong> Magazine<br />

Eagle’s <strong>Eye</strong> is published<br />

annually by Cincinnati Hills<br />

Christian Academy<br />

Please send address changes to<br />

Rebecca.sequeira@chca-oh.org<br />

or 513.247.0900<br />

Visit us on the web<br />

at chca-oh.org<br />

On the cover:<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Intercession <strong>2014</strong><br />

Students experience a<br />

Safari in Kenya<br />

to engage effectively and lovingly with different cultures,<br />

viewpoints, and ideas; and to achieve significant impact<br />

and influence with discerning wisdom, courageous curiosity,<br />

and resilient Christian faith—<br />

where others pull back, they lean into life.<br />

Follow <strong>CHCA</strong> on Facebook<br />

facebook.com/cincinnatihillschristianacademy<br />

Follow <strong>CHCA</strong><br />

on Twitter this Fall!<br />

@Go<strong>CHCA</strong>


From the Head of School<br />

Randy Brunk, Head of School<br />

Table of Contents<br />

Dynamically engaged<br />

The Amazing World of <strong>CHCA</strong> Intercession 2<br />

Baristas Wanted 4<br />

Human Trafficking Awareness Week 6<br />

Watch How Our Garden Grows 8<br />

Campus Highlights 10<br />

Refreshingly insightful<br />

Theological Integration 12<br />

Guests and Hosts-Hospitalitly Opens Doors 14<br />

Experiencing Life Change through LEGOs 16<br />

Boldly determined<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Athletics 18<br />

Winning Twice with Habitudes 20<br />

Exuberantly creative<br />

Children of Eden 22<br />

ArtBeat <strong>2014</strong> 24<br />

Fine Arts Awards 25<br />

Fully prepared & boundlessly hopeful<br />

Class of <strong>2014</strong> 26<br />

Graduation Reflection 30<br />

Inspiringly benevelant<br />

What I Learned from Mr. Steitz 31<br />

A Story of Accountability and Love 32<br />

A Mother’s Legacy 34<br />

Resiliently faithful<br />

Alumni News 35<br />

Alumni Class Notes 36<br />

Alumni <strong>2014</strong>-2015 Events 43<br />

Q&A with Liz (Bell) Young 44<br />

I love that this year’s Eagle’s <strong>Eye</strong> is centered around the many stories<br />

intertwined here at <strong>CHCA</strong>. As we know, Jesus taught in parables and stories,<br />

and stories make truth and reality come to life by being placed within the<br />

context of human experience. My life is filled with countless stories of my own,<br />

and of others - stories that have taught me so much about people, the lives<br />

they lead and the God we all serve.<br />

As the ‘13-’14 school year came to an end, we said goodbye to old friends<br />

moving away, retiring, or finding a new place in which to “hang their hat.”<br />

At the goodbye parties, people shared their memories - the stories that<br />

gave meaning to their labor of love at <strong>CHCA</strong> over the years. Often these<br />

stories morph over time, but generally the heart behind the story is as solid<br />

as the day it happened. That is because we connect in a very real way with<br />

our own condition at the time: our lack, our fear, our joy, our sadness, or our<br />

amusement. This entire “extra” gets involved and creates an indelible memory.<br />

Hence, the power of memory! Many of the books I am currently reading on<br />

brain research tie learning to emotion, engagement, failure, hope, etc. There<br />

is something very compelling to recall if there are multiple ways to accessing<br />

that memory. Emotion often powers the act of recall and is most vivid and<br />

compelling when recalled and then retold as a story.<br />

So, we use stories in the learning process. A teacher who wants to get a<br />

point across either tells or creates a story to cement the point. We craft within<br />

the classroom, or in the school overall, moments of something surprising,<br />

out of the ordinary, or generally special to create a unique story that can be<br />

recalled and retold. Again, scripture is replete with stories to help us remember<br />

the truths behind the story. A burning bush, a donkey that talks, a short man in<br />

a tree, a touch of the garment hem, a walk on the water, a feeding of thousands<br />

with just a few loaves and fishes, a crucifixion…all are stories that drive home a<br />

myriad of truths embedded in the heart of God.<br />

This past year, we graduated our largest class in <strong>CHCA</strong> history. That is<br />

no accident and there was nothing in the water 18 years ago that made that<br />

happen. It was brought about by parents who decided not to just drop their<br />

kids off at the local prep school, but instead to build stories woven together as<br />

families. As they invested in the life of <strong>CHCA</strong>, their children and each other’s<br />

children…they created a mass of stories woven together that bonded them as<br />

families with each other and with <strong>CHCA</strong>. Along the way, friends and neighbors<br />

saw this incredible sense of community in action, found it irresistible, and soon<br />

joined into the story. We walked across the graduation stage not 128 students,<br />

but 128 friends surrounded by literally thousands of family members who did<br />

life together for many years, and who build a treasure trove of stories that will<br />

be told to their children’s children and beyond.<br />

For our current families, and those who will be coming to us new this year,<br />

it’s never too late to build your story here at <strong>CHCA</strong> with the families you see<br />

most every day in car pool, in the stands, or in the audience. Reach out and get<br />

engaged. Invite someone to dinner before the big game or performance and<br />

hear their story. Go a level deeper and do life together, making sure no one<br />

gets left out, and you will see some fabulous outcomes in the lives of<br />

your children and our school.<br />

Thanks for helping me obtain a treasure trove of memories over the years.<br />

I live on your stories and the ones I have from doing life with you. I look<br />

forward to many more together.<br />

God bless,<br />

1


Dynamically engaged<br />

The Amazing World of <strong>CHCA</strong> Intercession<br />

by Dave Walker,<br />

Assistant Principal,<br />

Martha S. Lindner<br />

High School<br />

Students discover<br />

the ability to do things<br />

they never believed<br />

they could do and their<br />

lives will never be the<br />

same. Students find as<br />

they give themselves<br />

away to change the<br />

world, God changes<br />

them.<br />

The amazing world of <strong>CHCA</strong> Intercession rewards<br />

those willing to take the initiative and try something<br />

new. This includes openness in exploring a new culture<br />

here or abroad, trying new foods, trying out fledgling<br />

Spanish skills, learning to use a swing sickle to help<br />

harvest a crop with a Peruvian family, stepping into<br />

the adult culture within a professional career, tutoring<br />

an inner city elementary student, or reaching out and<br />

taking the risk to befriend someone you haven’t known<br />

in your own group from <strong>CHCA</strong>.<br />

Each year our students return with proof of the<br />

great rewards to be had from the amazing world of<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Intercession (formerly known as<br />

“J-Term” and “May-Term” experiences).<br />

Case in point: how many other schools<br />

have high school students who can say<br />

they have: built a house from scratch;<br />

eaten guinea pig in a home in Peru; sat<br />

around a fire with the Massai tribe in<br />

Kenya singing Jambo Bwana; gone on a<br />

four-day safari photographing cheetahs,<br />

lions, and cobras (see cover); climbed<br />

Mount Vesuvius in Italy; explored a<br />

Costa Rican rainforest, discovering<br />

a poison dart frog, holler monkeys,<br />

chestnut-mandibled toucans, and three<br />

toed sloths; visited the Sistine Chapel<br />

and seen Michelangelo’s frescoes on the<br />

ceiling, including the most famous panel,<br />

entitled “The Creation of Adam”; heard<br />

the unique night sounds of camping in the California<br />

desert; kayaked in the open waters in the Virgin Islands;<br />

spent two weeks in a judge’s chambers listening to<br />

the interaction between the defense and prosecuting<br />

attorneys in a murder trial, discovering the role of the<br />

bailiff and the clerk of court and hearing a judge share<br />

what is going through his mind as he presides over a<br />

trial and makes decisions in criminal and civil cases;<br />

shared two weeks in the marketing department of a<br />

major corporation observing the coordination between<br />

research and advertising; or worked in a company<br />

developing electric cars?<br />

For some students the most memorable part may<br />

be actually seeing the places they have studied in AP<br />

European History, English Literature, Latin Class, History<br />

of Christianity, Western Civilization, or World Studies.<br />

Personally, I have enjoyed the new relationships that<br />

develop with our own students, getting to know them<br />

outside of the regular routine of school. My appreciation<br />

stems from how amazing it is to realize how many<br />

really “cool” kids we have at <strong>CHCA</strong>, and I am talking<br />

about many who do not know how really cool they are;<br />

however, I see their coolness in the way they reach out<br />

to engage others and become the catalyst that causes<br />

others to stretch themselves outside their comfort<br />

zone. Some students just seem to make life more fun for<br />

everyone around them. Others impress by always being<br />

upbeat and positive no matter what the circumstances<br />

or how disappointing the situation. Their attitude lifts<br />

everyone else up out of the pits. So to me the most<br />

4


amazing part of the world of <strong>CHCA</strong> Intercession is<br />

spending time with our awesome students.<br />

Often and surprisingly, there are frustrations<br />

encountered along the way that end up enriching<br />

the overall experience. This past year, the Kenya<br />

group got stuck in Chicago for several days due to the<br />

weather. Frustration hit, but the coolest thing wasn’t<br />

the temperature, it was the perception the students<br />

adopted that God had a purpose in the delay. Arriving<br />

days late, they were able to extend their time in Kenya.<br />

During this extended time, God’s answer came. When<br />

they would have already gone home from Kenya, they<br />

had the chance to witness a child bride rescue, and<br />

they were able to meet and pray over Emily, the girl<br />

rescued. Not only that, the students gave Emily much<br />

of what they had brought on their trip, and have raised<br />

money (and continue to raise money) to pay for Emily’s<br />

schooling. Amazing!<br />

Experiencing the amazing world of <strong>CHCA</strong> Intercession<br />

will change you. Seeing the brokenness in<br />

the world disturbs students’ souls and changes their<br />

spiritual state giving new eyes, a softened heart, and<br />

an upsized view of God. Students learn to love people<br />

in new ways and they become bothered by things they<br />

never noticed before. They discover the ability to do<br />

things they never believed they could do and their<br />

lives will never be the same. Students find as they give<br />

themselves away to change the world, God changes<br />

them. As they say in Costa Rica, this is Pura Vida! Pure<br />

life! Simply amazing!<br />

Senior Caroline Kuremsky ‘14 reflects on her recent<br />

Kenya Intercession experience:<br />

“You learn to appreciate simplicity. Experiencing more of His<br />

creation, people and cultures was meaningful. Being able to learn<br />

about something here at school, and then to go and actually<br />

experience it is amazing.”<br />

“The best learning is not sightseeing,<br />

but experiencing.”<br />

Dan Grantham shares as he reflects on the nearly 40 Intercession<br />

trips he’s taken in the last 16 years. Long-time relationships of building<br />

into villages and orphanages in Kenya have existed. Over the years, tens<br />

of thousands of dollars have been raised by students to provide facilities,<br />

food and even new school desks for the students in St. Nicholas Orphanage.<br />

Students have literally reshaped their definition of “wealth” after<br />

experiencing culture and community in these villages thousands of miles<br />

from home. Whether living the life of a Massai, performing in the American<br />

Embassy or simply singing, dancing and praying with teenagers from<br />

another culture, our students boldly and courageously overcome fears, make<br />

meaningful connections and truly start to understand the kingdom impact<br />

they can have – all over the world.


Dynamically engaged<br />

Baristas Wanted!<br />

by Jason Oden,<br />

Christian Studies Teacher<br />

(Barista Extraordinaire),<br />

Martha S. Lindner<br />

High School<br />

The golden age of <strong>CHCA</strong> high school has begun! The sights, sounds, smells and smiles<br />

of a full-service coffee shop saturated the hallways of <strong>CHCA</strong> this past year, and many<br />

a student and faculty alike found it much easier to stay awake through the most<br />

challenging of lectures and rigorous exams.<br />

4<br />

The idea for the coffee cart was first birthed years ago<br />

by Dr. Nicholas, when he started as principal for <strong>CHCA</strong>.<br />

He wanted to put coffee in the library to help students<br />

form a habit—not just a coffee habit, but a library one as<br />

well. Unfortunately it wasn’t feasible at the time, and idea<br />

was shelved. Jump to years later, in the spring of 2013, like<br />

many of his colleagues (and quite frankly, students too),<br />

Todd Bacon’s love of coffee and weariness of having to<br />

make trips to Starbucks was growing greater and greater.<br />

But Bacon couldn’t make it happen alone. So, he consulted<br />

the one person who knows more about coffee than<br />

anyone in the high school: Jason Oden. Oden, despite<br />

never being a barista, was connected to the local coffee<br />

scene in Cincinnati and was more than eager to help<br />

make this caffeinated dream a reality.<br />

So prior to the summer of 2013, they assembled a<br />

great student team, purchased the equipment and<br />

made a plan to commit all profits to <strong>CHCA</strong> Intersession<br />

scholarships (What is “Intercession”? See our Eagle’s<br />

<strong>Eye</strong> Cover Story). It wasn’t long, however, until the task<br />

of starting the coffee cart was left to Oden to complete.<br />

Shortly after summer break began, Bacon took a new<br />

position in the high school directing the International<br />

Program, and had to concentrate all of his efforts on<br />

launching this exciting new addition to the high school.<br />

But Oden didn’t flinch, and worked throughout the<br />

summer to launch <strong>CHCA</strong>’s first-ever coffee cart.<br />

By the beginning of the school year, a team of welltrained<br />

upperclassmen and parent volunteers, three<br />

newly constructed coffee cart components and a slew<br />

of new equipment were ready to bring one of the only<br />

high school coffee bars in Cincinnati to the halls of<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong>’s MSL high school. The first day of operation of<br />

The Leaning Eagle was the day of the 2013 Homecoming<br />

Extravaganza. In that single day, Michael Schwabe, Will<br />

Drosos, Yimeng Fan, Clarissa Jacobs, Tian Fu, Xingmeng<br />

Ding, Alex Stevens, Emma Vincent and Caroline Lawley<br />

worked virtually nonstop to make enough drinks to go<br />

through ten pounds of coffee, over fifteen milk cartons<br />

and multiple bottles of flavor syrup and chocolate sauce.<br />

Needless to say, it was a success beyond expectations in<br />

the eyes of both customers as well as the student staff.<br />

And the same thing can be said about the operation and<br />

outcome of the coffee cart in its first full school year. By


the end of the 2013-<strong>2014</strong> school year, the coffee cart became a<br />

new <strong>CHCA</strong> institution that gave several high school students<br />

an opportunity to learn business and leadership skills, and<br />

successfully achieved its goal of giving back to our community.<br />

Year two is looking to continue its momentum by expanding its<br />

menu and operational hours, having a presence at more student<br />

functions—including all of the home football games - and will<br />

be hosted by dedicated student leaders, like Toria Adkinson,<br />

Clarissa Jacobs, Will Drosos, Will Ellis, Michael Blair, Chris<br />

Bolsinger, David Becthold and others. The Leaning Eagle is<br />

also adding an integrated entrepreneurial class taught by Brian<br />

Gardner and Bobby Willard. In the words of Matt Coleman, it’s<br />

a great day to be a <strong>CHCA</strong> Eagle.<br />

The Brand<br />

Many people who have been to the cart have been impressed<br />

with its size, style and functionality. The actual layout and<br />

design of the cart itself is based on the bar layout of a Third<br />

Wave coffee shop in Over-the-Rhine called Collective Espresso.<br />

Third Wave Coffee is a movement—probably more accurately<br />

a subculture—characterized by such features as artisan crafted<br />

products, minimal environmental impact and equitable sourcing<br />

(farming and purchasing), roasting and extraction (turning<br />

beans and water into coffee) practices and quirky, retro style—if<br />

you’re familiar with “hipsters,” then you won’t be surprised to<br />

learn that Third Wave Coffee is intertwined with hipster culture.<br />

The goal of the cart’s simplistic design and functionality, its<br />

quirky and good-natured lampooning name like The Leaning<br />

Eagle (lean into life + Eagle = Leaning Eagle), and its attention to<br />

a sustainable ethos attempts to embody all of these elements.<br />

The combination of both the Third Wave emphasis on<br />

ethical sourcing as well as a biblical ethos is the reason that<br />

The Leaning Eagle partners with a local roaster called Deeper<br />

Roots Coffee here in Cincinnati. Deeper Roots ethically sources<br />

and roasts coffee, as well as outfits coffee shops with the best<br />

equipment in the industry. One of the most exciting aspects of<br />

Deeper Roots’ business model is its personal relationship with<br />

small, independent coffee farmers. Les Stoneham, the owner<br />

of Deeper Roots, has direct relationships with many of these<br />

farmers, especially in Guatemala, and directly purchases their<br />

coffee at a fair price. That means that all the coffee sold at The<br />

Leaning Eagle not only benefits <strong>CHCA</strong> students; it also benefits<br />

the independent farmers with which Stoneham directly works.<br />

This is definitely a “win twice” venture!<br />

Finally, one of the most salient and distinguishing features of<br />

Third Wave coffee is the roasting method employed. Places like<br />

Starbucks are known for their “burnt” coffee, because Starbucks<br />

roasts most of their coffee to be bitter and “strong.” A way you<br />

can tell that coffee beans are roasted to taste this way—some say<br />

‘over-roasted’ — is a shiny coffee bean. The shine on the bean is<br />

the oil that has been extracted from the bean during the roasting<br />

process. Third Wave coffee roasters believe that allowing oil to<br />

seep out of the bean during the roasting process causes it to lose<br />

its inherent flavors and therefore making it taste “burnt”, similar<br />

to burning something in the kitchen or on the grill. Coffee beans<br />

from Deeper Roots Coffee, and other roasters like them, never<br />

produce beans that are shiny, allowing each bean to retain its<br />

natural oils and flavors. So, when you purchase coffee at The<br />

Leaning Eagle, you can expect to go beyond “bold” coffee to<br />

begin tasting the subtle fruity and earthy flavors of the different<br />

types of coffee beans from all over the world.<br />

Trenton Pfister’s <strong>2014</strong><br />

Intercession trip was spent<br />

visiting the Guatemalan<br />

plantation that provides<br />

beans to Deeper Roots.<br />

Mission, Goals and Getting Engaged<br />

The goal of The Leaning Eagle isn’t just centered on a<br />

self-interested need to give students and faculty the caffeine<br />

needed to complete the rigorous demands of the <strong>CHCA</strong><br />

school year (though it does help…) Nor is it to give an opportunity<br />

for students to brag about their school’s coffee cart to<br />

their non-<strong>CHCA</strong> students—which, based on student anecdotes,<br />

also happens quite frequently. Rather, within all the<br />

noises, smells and stains generated by the coffee cart, there is<br />

an altruistic purpose to give back, not only to the <strong>CHCA</strong> community,<br />

but also to the local and global community: from its<br />

ethically-sourced beans to its compostable cups to its mission<br />

to fund Intersession scholarships, The Leaning Eagle is just as<br />

much missional as it is novel and profitable.<br />

The future success of The Leaning Eagle, however, is solely<br />

dependent on the support of the <strong>CHCA</strong> community. There<br />

will be plenty of opportunities to engage in this fun mission<br />

in the coming year: 1) Purchase coffee beans from the coffee<br />

cart. You’ll not only get great tasting coffee, you’ll also be<br />

helping the cart and the coffee farmers. 2) Be a volunteer<br />

barista. You learn how to make great coffee and you give<br />

back to <strong>CHCA</strong> with your time and talents. (A bonus, you’ll<br />

get to experience a ‘day in the life’ with our students.) And<br />

3) frequent the coffee cart next year for your daily caffeine<br />

fix.The Leaning Eagle plans to be open daily from 7:30am to<br />

the end of the school day. After all, wouldn’t you rather get<br />

quality and artisanal coffee at a lower price, while giving back<br />

to the greater good? Another “win twice” moment!<br />

To stay on top of events and news from The Leaning Eagle,<br />

you can follow the cart on Facebook and Twitter. For more<br />

questions on purchasing coffee or volunteering, you can<br />

email Jason Oden at Jason.Oden@chca-oh.org.<br />

5


Dynamically engaged<br />

Human Trafficking Awareness Week<br />

Artwork by Tim Hilderbrand<br />

“It is Finished”.<br />

SDG ’14 stands for Soli Deo Gloria,<br />

or To God alone be the glory<br />

6


Every year, Martha S. Lindner High School’s Student Organized Services (SOS) comes together to<br />

bring awareness to worldwide issues such as hunger and the lack of fresh water. This spring, SOS<br />

chose to bring awareness to the fastest growing issue in our world today: human trafficking. There<br />

are 27 million slaves in the world today - 1,078 of them being children in our own state of<br />

Ohio. That’s more than the population of <strong>CHCA</strong>’s middle school and high school combined.<br />

Karen Hordinski, Outreach Coordinator/Student Organized Service at Martha<br />

S. Lindner High School shared, “ When student leaders chose human trafficking as<br />

a topic they wanted to explore, I was hesitant. It felt like a hot social justice issue<br />

that’s popular to discuss, but too distant for us to do much about. Difficult issues<br />

of social justice can also overwhelm and promote fear. Truthfully, it can just be too<br />

scary to think about for young women, and young men tend to think it’s not an issue<br />

that impacts them. However, the more we researched, the more we realized we<br />

had to talk about it. We realized that we needed to let people know that it’s not just far away in India, Cambodia &<br />

Thailand – it’s right here in our backyard. We learned that children in Ohio are trafficked in larger numbers than we<br />

expected. We also learned about people who were trafficked for labor in Cincinnati. And, now we believe that it is<br />

our responsibility as Christ followers to challenge people to find ways to stop the demand for - and the perpetuation<br />

- of trafficking.”<br />

During that week, students attended chapels and events where they heard speakers from organizations such<br />

as International Justice Mission (IJM) and Destiny Rescue. To balance the heaviness of the stories and statistics<br />

the students received, they were provided with opportunities to “do” something about trafficking. SOS students<br />

organized homeroom collections of items to send to local survivors of trafficking. Students and guests also had<br />

an opportunity to attend Nefarious Night, a documentary event hosted by students and student vendors, where<br />

purchased items made by survivors in a fair trade market and movie ticket sales all went to support the rescue of a<br />

person being trafficked. For perspective, it costs $1,500 to rescue one child from trafficking. <strong>CHCA</strong>’s SOS goal is to<br />

raise much more.<br />

Post event, to help raise funds to rescue a second child, MSL High School’s Fine Arts Teacher Tim Hilderbrand<br />

also auctioned off an artwork piece entitled “It is Finished”.<br />

“We believe that it is our responsibility<br />

as Christ followers to challenge people<br />

to find ways to stop the demand for -<br />

and the perpetuation - of trafficking.”<br />

Students at <strong>CHCA</strong> have raised over $2,000 (and counting) to fund the rescue of children from human trafficking.<br />

This is a cause that is near to the hearts of these students, some of whom have personally encountered and prayed<br />

over rescued children on Intercession trips. These students have truly taken action and pray daily over this world issue.<br />

7


Dynamically engaged<br />

Watch How Our Garden Grows...<br />

by Alex O’Brien ‘17<br />

Quite simply, the<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Sustainable<br />

Garden by its very<br />

nature, will be able<br />

to provide fresh fruits<br />

and vegetables to<br />

families that cannot<br />

afford to put these<br />

‘luxuries’ on their<br />

kitchen table.<br />

The summer was hot, and the college visits were being piled on. The day was a couple of years<br />

ago; we were on a college visit at Yale for my brother, Michael. We took a tour around campus,<br />

appreciating the charm that always comes with college grounds. While we walked around the<br />

dorms, I saw an organic garden the students created to help sustain themselves and neighbors in<br />

need around them. Because my family has always been one to garden, the idea of having a garden at<br />

our own home sprung into my head. Once our small domestic garden started flourishing, I thought<br />

it would be amazing if we could expand it somewhere. Eventually, that somewhere would turn out to<br />

be <strong>CHCA</strong>.<br />

I approached Mr. Brunk about my organic garden idea during the spring of my 8th grade year, and<br />

the planning stage subsequently followed his approval and plot selection for the garden. From the<br />

Fall through this Spring, family and friends at <strong>CHCA</strong> helped to make this garden a reality. Hauling<br />

planks, building beds and planting seeds became several weekend’s worth of labor and love.<br />

According to 2007 U.S. Census data, Cincinnati is the tenth poorest city in the country with a<br />

poverty rate of 23.5%, compared to a national (and Ohio-wide) poverty rate of 12.5%. That means<br />

that approximately one in four Cincinnatians falls below the poverty line, and our city’s poverty rate<br />

is almost twice the national average. Our main goal is to grow as much produce as we can. Once the<br />

produce is harvested, we will donate it to these people in need within our city.<br />

The plan is for the food to be donated through the<br />

Freestore Foodbank, an organization in downtown<br />

Cincinnati that distributes canned and organically<br />

grown food to the poor in the local tri-state area. After<br />

a “chance” introduction at the 5K Hunger Walk in<br />

downtown Cincinnati, I recently met with Freestore<br />

Foodbank’s CEO, Kurt Reiber. He shared with us,<br />

“Since our founding 43 years ago, the types of food<br />

that we distribute to our neighbors in need has taken a<br />

dramatic shift. Previously, we provided canned goods<br />

and boxed goods to our customers - what we would call<br />

“shelf stable food items’. Today, we are distributing fresh fruits and vegetables along with frozen<br />

meats and cut meats - food items that would be considered “highly perishable”. We began our own<br />

8


community garden known as ‘The Giving Fields’ three<br />

years ago, so that we could provide these perishable<br />

fresh fruits and vegetables to our neighbors in need. The<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Sustainable Garden will allow us to build on that<br />

foundation and expand the amount of fresh fruits and<br />

vegetables that we can distribute to the roughly 100,000<br />

food insecure children living in the 20 counties served<br />

by the Freestore Foodbank. Quite simply, the <strong>CHCA</strong><br />

Sustainable Garden by its very nature, will be able to<br />

provide fresh fruits and vegetables to families that cannot<br />

afford to put these ‘luxuries’ on their kitchen table.”<br />

Another long-term goal is for the garden to serve as<br />

an educational tool for all students at <strong>CHCA</strong>. It can be<br />

tied in to Dr. Savage’s Environmental Science class, and<br />

can also work well within middle and elementary school<br />

science curricula. Once it is well-established, we hope to<br />

even further expand the garden. Our resources for the<br />

garden have come from Dr. Savage, Mr. Brunk, and many<br />

other generous donors.<br />

This garden is a symbol of <strong>CHCA</strong> reflecting its Christian<br />

morals and ideals. I believe that it is important to express<br />

love and give back to the community in which we live. As<br />

we’re all part of the story of building God’s kingdom, we<br />

should treat everyone equally and give as much help as<br />

we can to those who are in need.<br />

This work cannot be done without help. The idea is to<br />

get our <strong>CHCA</strong> students and families involved with the<br />

garden, as it is truly a model of initiative in the community.<br />

Students can even work in an SOS group for the garden,<br />

gaining leadership skills and getting service hours while<br />

having fun. If we can sustain the garden ongoing and help<br />

it to grow throughout the next couple of years, then it can<br />

become an integral part of <strong>CHCA</strong>. The garden can be a<br />

model to other schools and communities.<br />

With the help of Dr. Savage, Mr. Brunk, a few teachers at<br />

the middle school, and the Freestore Foodbank, the garden<br />

is progressing and becoming everything I imagined it to be<br />

and more. This garden is important to me because of all<br />

the potential and hope it possesses. It was hard to envision<br />

my dream being fulfilled at the beginning, and now that it<br />

has been, our goals can soon be completed. I hope you will<br />

consider joining us as the story is just beginning…<br />

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain<br />

in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;<br />

apart from me you can do nothing. - John 15:5<br />

If you wish to be involved in planting,<br />

harvesting and weeding the garden<br />

this upcoming year, sign-up opportunities<br />

will be available in the Fall via<br />

Campus Connection.<br />

9


Marketplace A.D.<br />

AfterProm<br />

Dynamically engaged<br />

Campus Highlights<br />

Celebration<br />

Hands Against Hunger<br />

National Honor Society


Learn, Lead and Serve Scholarships<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> proudly announced the winners of the 7th Annual Learn, Lead<br />

and Serve Scholarship Competition. “These merit scholarships provide<br />

a way for us to recognize students in the class of 2018,” says Wendy<br />

Easterday, <strong>CHCA</strong> Admissions Counselor. The Learn Scholarships are<br />

awarded to students who score highest on our Freshman Entrance Exam,<br />

and the Lead and Serve Scholarships recognize students whose essays<br />

and resume experiences demonstrate a commitment to leadership and<br />

service. “I’m so excited to welcome these students to the high school<br />

in the Fall. As we’ve seen from past winners, our Learn, Lead, and Serve<br />

Scholars make a great impact in the high school and beyond. And two of<br />

our winners come from outside of <strong>CHCA</strong>, so we are thrilled to welcome<br />

them into our community!” added MSL High School Principal Dr. Dean<br />

Nicholas. The scholarships will be paid out to the recipients over their<br />

four years of high school at <strong>CHCA</strong>.<br />

Perfect ACT Score Junior Michael O’Brien earned a top composite<br />

score of 36 on the ACT. Nationally, on average, less than one-tenth of one<br />

percent of students who take the ACT earns the top score!<br />

Learn Scholarships<br />

Front row: Susan Easterday, Lauren<br />

Rogus Middle row: Josh Braden,<br />

Jacob Koopman Back row: Sebastian<br />

Rodriguez, Dean Nicholas, Ryan Hunt<br />

Lead & Serve<br />

Scholarships<br />

Front row: Colin Keenan, Maya Yates<br />

Middle Row: Julianna Collado, Rachel<br />

Suh Back Row: Kristopher Carnes,<br />

Dean Nicholas, Candace Pfiister<br />

National Merit Finalist<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Seniors Sarah Cunningham, Angela Carver and Andrew Minnich<br />

were all named <strong>2014</strong> National Merit Finalists in February. “We are so<br />

proud of Angela, Andrew, and Sarah on this accomplishment. Not only<br />

are they excellent, inquisitive, thoughtful students, but they are engaged<br />

members of our broader <strong>CHCA</strong> community. In their own ways, each of<br />

them have shared their unique gifts with our school,” commented High<br />

School Principal Dean Nicholas.<br />

National Merit Commended<br />

Ten of our students were also named National Merit Commended<br />

students. They’re 10 of about 34,000 nationally commended students<br />

being recognized for outstanding academic achievement. The<br />

commended students are Sarah Ottenjohn, Kendall Hart, Ellie Coggins,<br />

Hannah Chait, Josh Mangels, Chris Zhang, John Wells, Kevin Bao,<br />

Kimmi Bolsinger and Morgan Shiveley.<br />

Lindner Scholars and Susan Miller Winner<br />

Cum Laude Scholarships<br />

Alex O’Brien, Maggie Mize, Jonny Mize and Adam Rice are the newest<br />

Cum Laude Scholarship recipients for the upcoming year. To be eligible for<br />

this honor, students must be currently enrolled or accepted for admission<br />

to <strong>CHCA</strong>. Students in grades 8 and 9 qualify by taking the Independent<br />

School Entrance Exam (ISEE) and having the scores sent to <strong>CHCA</strong>.<br />

Students in grade 10 qualify based on their PSAT score. Students must<br />

also demonstrate exceptional academic performance in the classroom.<br />

Congratulations to these three scholarship winners who will be freshman<br />

at Martha S. Lindner High School this fall. Joy Dehner -Lindner Scholar,<br />

Darian Woods-Lindner Scholar, Paris Simpson-Susan Miller Scholarship<br />

(Pictured above with Head of School Randy Brunk.)<br />

Cum Laude Scholarship-Distinguished level Ryan Hunt<br />

qualified for our highest academic merit scholarship, the Cum Laude<br />

Scholarship, at the Distinguished level, which awards 90% of his high<br />

school tuition renewable for three additional years.<br />

Hispanic Scholar Recognition Zachary Alvarado was named a<br />

Hispanic Scholar by the National Hispanic Recognition Program. He was<br />

one of 5,000 selected from over 259,000 eligible worldwide.<br />

Cum Laude Scholarship<br />

- Distinguished<br />

Hispanic Scholar<br />

Recognition


Refreshingly insightful<br />

…[creating ] an environment where … guided by expert Christian<br />

teachers, students wrestle with increasingly complex, timeless,<br />

essential questions in order to strengthen their minds and their faith<br />

Theological Integration<br />

by Dean Nicholas, PhD,<br />

Martha S. LindnerHigh School Principal<br />

A New Model for Creating a Christian Mind<br />

12<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> is indeed intentional about being academically<br />

excellent as well as Christ-centered in all we do. While<br />

academic excellence is widely understood, the term “Christcentered”<br />

is more ambiguous. This is one of our most<br />

deeply held core values in our school, yet its meaning has<br />

become nebulous. If we were to ask various people within<br />

our community what Christ-centeredness meant, the only<br />

consensus would be the initial response that Christ is the<br />

center of everything we do. But if pressed past the jargon,<br />

one would find as many different answers as those asked. And<br />

this creates an institutional dilemma, because a term that can<br />

mean anything to anyone actually means nothing for all. So<br />

how do we understand Christ-centeredness as it relates<br />

to <strong>CHCA</strong>, and how does this inform the way we instruct our<br />

students?<br />

When we think about the role of a Christian school, we must<br />

first think about vocation. What is a Christian school uniquely<br />

called to do? This is a significant consideration and one that<br />

is too rarely considered. We must remember that a Christian<br />

school is a para-church organization, or an organization that<br />

comes alongside the church. That is an important distinction<br />

because we are different in our function or calling from a<br />

church. As we come alongside the church, our purpose is<br />

to develop Christian minds to consider how we live out a<br />

Christian life and how we engage God’s world. In order to<br />

think as broadly as possible in this arena, we have used the<br />

metaphors of “Head, Heart, and Hands”. By Head, we mean<br />

the intellectual investigation of the areas of Bible, Theology,<br />

Church History, and Spirituality. This takes place not only in<br />

our Christian Studies curriculum; it is woven throughout all<br />

subject areas. By Heart, we mean the spiritual formation of our<br />

students through weekly chapels, worship and the expression<br />

of each student’s God-given talents. By Hands, we mean the<br />

acting out of the Head and Heart components in practical<br />

ways. This is carried out formally through service and outreach,<br />

and informally by creating an environment in which we expect<br />

everyone in the community to live out the teachings of Jesus.<br />

And while we deal with the Head, Heart, and Hands, as an<br />

academy, our number one calling is to educate our students.<br />

So it should not be surprising that our primary focus is on the<br />

Head aspect of the equation.<br />

So what is “Theological Integration”?<br />

Theological Integration is the process by which our teachers<br />

engage the “Head” of our students on a deep level about how<br />

thinking in a “Christ-centered” way affects all areas of study<br />

and learning. Our Theological Integration is rooted in the<br />

biblical text. But we are careful to use the language of<br />

“Theological Integration,” rather than the older term “Biblical<br />

Integration,” for how we attempt to theologically enrich our<br />

curriculum. As a multi-denominational school, it is important<br />

that certain denominational interpretations are not given<br />

priority and/or preference by teachers based on their own<br />

personal interpretations. The Bible is our foundation, but we<br />

must acknowledge that we all read the Bible based on our<br />

theological presuppositions. For instance, both Calvinists


and Armenians read the same Bible. Yet one sees God’s<br />

predestination while the other sees God’s gift of free will,<br />

both from the same book. Dozens of other examples could be<br />

given. Theology shapes what we see. So in an attempt to find<br />

a theological common ground that aligns with our Statement<br />

of Faith and fits our theological community, we sought to find<br />

a simple, straightforward theological construct which could<br />

summarize the key points of the Bible, yet leave room for deeper<br />

mining of the depths of Scripture. To this note, we train our<br />

faculty in a basic understanding of Christian theology. If we are to<br />

be a school that claims Christ-centeredness as a core value, we<br />

must begin with people who can think in Christ-centered ways.<br />

It involves more than having teachers who love Christ and follow<br />

Him. It involves more than teachers who read and know the Bible.<br />

Our school must have a foundation of teachers who comprehend<br />

theologically how our understandings of Christ, the Bible, and<br />

the world interrelate. Only then can we begin to integrate our<br />

theological worldview into all we do and all we teach.<br />

To this end, as a school we focus on five key theological “Big<br />

Ideas” based on Cornelius Plantinga’s Engaging God’s World: A<br />

Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living. These five “big ideas”<br />

are 1) all humans have a longing and hope for something greater,<br />

2) God is Creator, 3) the Creation is Fallen, 4) Jesus Redeems<br />

Creation through His Life, Death, and Resurrection, and 5) We<br />

Can Be Part of God’s Restoration through our Vocation.<br />

As our teachers engage students in their specific disciplines,<br />

we desire for them to find connections where their subject<br />

matter intersects with our theological “big ideas.” The way in<br />

which teachers engage the students is through “theological<br />

essential questions.” Theological essential questions are openended,<br />

thought-provoking questions that prod students to think<br />

theologically and deeply about the subject. These questions can<br />

continually be reconsidered at different ages and developmental<br />

levels with varying levels of sophistication. Theological essential<br />

questions require students to reflect on their knowledge and<br />

synthesize it with theological understandings from the Scriptures.<br />

Over the past year we have shared a lot about essential<br />

questions. An example of an essential question is “What is<br />

history?” If one wanted to make this a “theological essential<br />

question,” one might ask, “(How) Does God Act in History?”<br />

This question stretches students to consider what history is<br />

and how they understand the academic discipline. Then they<br />

must consider the theological issue of Divine presence and to<br />

what degree God intersects our time and space. Is history the<br />

story of natural and human cause and effect or is God also part<br />

of the equation? Students now need to understand historical<br />

analogues and biblical material to argue for their perspectives.<br />

What evidence is available? Theological essential questions can<br />

then be more specific. Was God on a “side” in the American Civil<br />

War? Does God ever take sides? How does the biblical picture of<br />

God on Israel’s side in victory but also the reason for their losses<br />

fit into a modern consideration of world politics? Clearly these are<br />

not straightforward, easy answers. But they force teachers and<br />

students to consider Scripture, our theological understandings,<br />

and the world in which we live. This way of teaching demands<br />

that every teacher wrestle with how their Christian faith and<br />

worldview intersect with their academic discipline.<br />

Using theological essential questions like the ones above greatly<br />

benefits the faith development of students as they begin to<br />

construct how Christ is at the center of all things. But a question<br />

like “(How) Does God Act in History?” assumes a high level<br />

of sophistication which requires older students. What about<br />

elementary school students? This same theological essential<br />

question could be asked in a different, more age appropriate way.<br />

For instance, one might ask a grade school child, “How do you<br />

see God today?” At a different developmental level, this question<br />

is getting at the same theological construct—How is Christ in<br />

all and through all? Asking this theological essential question in<br />

various ways throughout the stages of our students’ education<br />

allows them to continually reconsider what it means for God to<br />

be at work in the world. As students acquire more knowledge and<br />

reality becomes more complex, they will be able to reimagine<br />

answers to this question with greater and greater sophistication<br />

and complexity. In this way, we believe that our students grow<br />

intellectually and spiritually in a way that fosters faith without<br />

simple indoctrination.<br />

Our task is not an easy one. But as we educate our students in a<br />

truly Christ-centered environment, we prepare them to leave our<br />

school with a faith that is thoroughly grounded, tested, and deep.<br />

They are willing to ask the hard questions that faith demands,<br />

not just compartmentalizing their beliefs into a safe category.<br />

They are willing to engage God’s world and work in His Kingdom<br />

in ways that are dynamic and life affirming. And for this reason,<br />

it is our belief that our students will “achieve significant impact<br />

and influence with discerning wisdom, courageous curiosity and<br />

resilient Christian faith.”<br />

As we educate our<br />

students in a truly<br />

Christ-centered<br />

environment, we prepare<br />

them to leave our school<br />

with a faith that is<br />

thoroughly grounded,<br />

tested, and deep.<br />

13


Refreshingly insightful<br />

by Todd D. Bacon, J.D., M.A.T.S., International Student Program Director<br />

Guests and Hosts-Hospitality Opens Doors<br />

“<strong>CHCA</strong> has allowed me to experience a completely<br />

different culture in a Christ-centered environment in which<br />

I have been able to make new friends, learn different things<br />

and overall, experience the adventure of living abroad.”<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> International Student, Guillermo Farfán II<br />

14<br />

From the growing number of international students attending<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong>, one might easily conclude that our International Student<br />

Program and global emphasis is simply an act of hospitality receiving<br />

students from other countries. This is only a small part of a much<br />

bigger picture! <strong>CHCA</strong>’s network of global friends and relationships<br />

has grown steadily and is becoming increasingly reciprocal and<br />

mutually enriching. Beyond the beautiful relationship that continues<br />

to blossom between our students and children in Monterrey<br />

Mexico (supported through Back2Back Ministries) and countless<br />

international Intersession mission trips, relationships are growing<br />

around the world from Israel to Guatemala, Kenya, China, and Korea.<br />

The writer Karen Hering beautifully captures the essence of the word<br />

‘hospitality’ as she explains its origin. Hering notes that the Latin<br />

root ghosti, contains both “guest”’ and “stranger” in “an etymology<br />

beautifully intertwined as a reminder that hospitality is born of a rich<br />

reciprocity in which guest and host are merely roles exchanged over<br />

time.”1 She notes that both Greek and Arabic also fuse the meaning<br />

of guest and host into one broad, generous word.


<strong>CHCA</strong>’s network of global friends and relationships<br />

has grown steadily and is becoming increasingly<br />

reciprocal and mutually enriching.<br />

Although there are many examples and stories of the<br />

ways in which <strong>CHCA</strong> has been both guest and host, let me<br />

offer three. First, I think of <strong>CHCA</strong>’s faculty, students, and<br />

parents who have travelled frequently to the Tent of Nations<br />

and Daher’s Vineyard, an organic farm located in the hills<br />

southwest of Bethlehem. There they have learned first-hand<br />

of the extraordinary Christ-like example of Daoud Nassar<br />

and his family who tirelessly work towards building bridges of<br />

understanding, reconciliation, and peace in Israel. The MSL<br />

High School in return<br />

welcomed and hosted<br />

Mr. Nassar at <strong>CHCA</strong> as<br />

he spoke in Chapel and<br />

helped our community<br />

understand first-hand<br />

the calling we have<br />

as Christ followers to<br />

engage in working for<br />

shalom within our world.<br />

Next May, we anticipate<br />

sending an Intersession group of students and faculty to both<br />

learn about the struggle for peace and reconciliation between<br />

Palestinian Christians and Jews, as well as to help develop and<br />

install an aquaponic system on the farm.<br />

Another example of growing reciprocity is the relationship<br />

that has emerged between <strong>CHCA</strong> and an exceptional<br />

school and community in Guatemala. <strong>CHCA</strong> has been the<br />

beneficiary of two remarkable students from MAES Modern<br />

American English School in Antigua, Guatemala, and <strong>CHCA</strong><br />

students and faculty have also had the opportunity to travel<br />

there to learn, share, and deepen their understanding of<br />

Spanish language and Guatemalan culture. Last summer<br />

John Prado, one of our Spanish teachers at the High School,<br />

travelled with a small group of students to Antigua and were<br />

lovingly enveloped into MAES’ community, as they were<br />

immersed into their life and culture living with host families.<br />

The opportunities for deepening the relationship between<br />

MAES and <strong>CHCA</strong> in the future are only just beginning.<br />

The third example represents an exciting new development<br />

for <strong>CHCA</strong> and a natural extension of the International<br />

Student Program. Next spring, the first <strong>CHCA</strong> student will<br />

spend a semester studying at Gehzi High School of Shanghai,<br />

located in the heart of downtown Shanghai, China. Because<br />

of the mutual trust and relationships that have developed<br />

among <strong>CHCA</strong>, the Shangahi Dian Zhi Ya Cultural Exchange<br />

Company, Gehzi High School and its parents and students, a<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> senior - whose passion is to study and prepare for an<br />

International business career in Asia - will become possible<br />

while in High School abroad. The opportunity to study and<br />

live in China for a semester will provide an extraordinary<br />

rich experience on which to draw in shaping her goals and<br />

coursework in University. In addition to our first <strong>CHCA</strong><br />

exchange student, the growing relationship between <strong>CHCA</strong><br />

and schools in both Shanghai and Hangzhou, will soon<br />

provide significant opportunities for collaboration and shared<br />

learning between students and programs in both countries.<br />

“For us, welcoming Guillermo into our home expanded<br />

our family. In addition to Guillermo joining us, we have a<br />

special bond with his family in Guatemala. This has been a<br />

double blessing. Our lives are richer because our families are<br />

connected. It has been an extraordinary experience for us all.”<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Host Parents Todd and Natalie Pfister<br />

Only one year ago <strong>CHCA</strong> launched the International<br />

Student Program to comprehensively meet the needs of<br />

a growing number of international students. Rather than<br />

relying on traditional agencies to recruit and support these<br />

students, <strong>CHCA</strong> designed a program that would facilitate the<br />

recruitment of excellent students, place them with <strong>CHCA</strong><br />

families, and provide a level of academic and social support<br />

that would allow these students to thrive and succeed as<br />

integral members of our community. International Student<br />

fees, in addition to regular tuition pay for these services and<br />

the program, has been remarkably successful. Seven initial<br />

students finished their first year within the program and we<br />

anticipate welcoming an additional 16 new students from<br />

China, Korea, Guatemala, and Mexico this fall. Ever since<br />

the first international student arrived at <strong>CHCA</strong> in 2007, the<br />

presence of international students in our school has deeply<br />

enriched our academic program, lives, and community. We are<br />

profoundly thankful for their presence in our lives and to the<br />

host families who have lovingly opened their hearts and homes<br />

to these young men and women. Please consider ways in which<br />

your family might participate in the International Student<br />

Program as guests or hosts in our growing communities<br />

of friends around the world. If you would like additional<br />

information on our program and specifically on opportunities<br />

to host an international student, I would be delighted to<br />

connect with you!<br />

Please consider ways in which your family might<br />

participate in the International Student Program as<br />

guests or hosts in our growing communities of<br />

friends around the world. Contact Todd Bacon for<br />

more information - Todd.Bacon@chca-oh.org<br />

1 Karen Hering, Writing to Wake the Soul. (New York, New York: Atria Books/Beyond Words, 2013), 192.<br />

15


Refreshingly insightful<br />

What an amazing<br />

opportunity for<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong>’s Middle School<br />

students to be the<br />

physical hands and<br />

feet of Jesus – and to<br />

hear, see and feel the<br />

difference being<br />

made in the lives of<br />

orphans in Mexico.<br />

Experiencing<br />

Life Change through<br />

LEGOs<br />

16<br />

by Julie Carnes,<br />

Donor Relations/Events Coordinator<br />

and Lance Webel, Director of Student<br />

Development & Socials<br />

The week of March 1, <strong>2014</strong> was an exciting time for <strong>CHCA</strong> Middle School. 54 students in 7th and 8th<br />

grade and chaperones traveled to Monterey, Mexico to experience a week working with Back2Back<br />

Ministries. This was not a resort vacation trip by any stretch, rather, it was a life changing week full of<br />

challenging work, sacrificial service and incredible fun for our students.<br />

While not every Middle School student went on the journey to Mexico, the anticipation leading up to<br />

this trip was experienced by all Middle School students.<br />

When Jared Treadway, 8th grade Christian Studies teacher, was preparing to go on this annual mission<br />

trip, he noticed that LEGOs were on a list of items that were acceptable to bring for the children in the<br />

orphanages. Putting two and two together, he realized that many of our middle school students may<br />

have outgrown their own collections (or at least had so many that they could spare to part with some),<br />

so he decided to mobilize the middle school student body to collect LEGOs to bring to the children in<br />

Mexico.<br />

Mr. Treadway challenged each advisory to bring in as many LEGO pieces as possible, then assemble<br />

a masterpiece designed around the theme, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” And our Middle School<br />

students showed that when presented with a challenge – they will deliver!<br />

The results were overwhelming...tens of thousands of LEGO blocks were donated, and the creations<br />

that 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade advisories built showcased their creativity, problem-solving, faith, and<br />

generosity.<br />

Mr. Daniel’s 8th grade advisory won the LEGO challenge with a massive display, highlighted by a<br />

LEGO Wall containing a cross and the words “Our God”.


This experience<br />

gave them an<br />

opportunity to<br />

rally together<br />

to meet a<br />

need with the<br />

resources God<br />

provided them,<br />

uniting as one<br />

student body to<br />

further advance<br />

the Kingdom.<br />

“I enjoyed seeing the wide assortment of LEGO pieces,<br />

with everything from spaceships to castles to LEGO<br />

people to horseshoes, come together.” said Mr. Daniel.<br />

“But it was even more impressive to me to witness the<br />

wide range of interests and personalities in my advisory<br />

boys converge as they worked together as a team on this<br />

project.”<br />

On the last day of the LEGO challenge, dozens of<br />

advisories came to the stage to view the finished<br />

creations, then disassemble the thousands of blocks<br />

to pack and send down to Mexico. These LEGOs were<br />

then added to the proceeds ($3,729.69) from National<br />

Junior Honor Society’s “Funding Faith” fundraiser to bless<br />

the orphans in Monterrey. (Yes, in addition to donating<br />

thousands of LEGOs, our students collected thousands of<br />

dollars in spare change!)<br />

Cut to the mission trip – where countless hours of work<br />

contributed by students doing things such as hauling<br />

concrete, building a playground wall, repairing a roof and<br />

serving meals, were paired with simply spending time with<br />

the children in Monterey. If you could see the joy in the<br />

eyes of the children in Monterey as they played LEGOs<br />

with the <strong>CHCA</strong> students. Hours were spent around the<br />

tables of Legos, having fun building and exploring their<br />

imaginations!<br />

What an amazing opportunity for these Middle School<br />

students to be the physical hands and feet of Jesus – and<br />

to hear, see and feel the difference being made in the lives<br />

of orphans in Mexico. One of our students profoundly<br />

shared that their work was similar to a tree. The roots are<br />

“our beliefs”, the trunk is “how we see ourselves” based<br />

on our beliefs, and the branches are “our actions” coming<br />

from the trunk via the roots. You can’t make change unless<br />

you start with the roots. We did “root work” that will start<br />

the growth of many healthy trees.<br />

Ultimately, Mr. Treadway’s simple idea had a profound<br />

effect, not only upon the children who received the<br />

LEGOs, but also upon the students who collected them<br />

and delivered them. This experience gave them an<br />

opportunity to rally together to meet a need with the<br />

resources God provided them, uniting as one student<br />

body to further advance the Kingdom.<br />

17


Boldly determined<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Athletics<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Athletics could not be prouder of the performance of its athletic teams, athletes, coaches, parents and<br />

supporters. Our teams competed in 20 sports that are recognized by the Miami Valley Conference (MVC) and<br />

excelled in nearly every one of them! Our athletes were recognized for sportsmanship, excellence and<br />

courageous spirit and several teams and/or athletes advanced to district, regional and state level competition.<br />

While many talented students will hang up their gloves,<br />

shoes or rackets, six special athletes committed to play<br />

their sport at the collegiate level. They include:<br />

Kyle Davis Baseball, West Virginia University<br />

Kendall Hart Swimming, Liberty Universtiy<br />

Marissa Koob Basketball, University of Charleston<br />

Nick Marsh Football, Amherst College<br />

Ricky Silvestri Baseball, Mars Hill University<br />

Aliza Williams Tennis, Centre College<br />

Congratulations and best wishes for a successful<br />

college experience!<br />

Character and academic achievement awards presented to highly deserving athletes<br />

Dick Snyder Sportsmanship Award: Jonah Gardner, Marissa Koob, and Matt Overstreet<br />

18<br />

OHSAA Courageous<br />

Student Award<br />

Beth Hansford<br />

Army Reserve National Scholar<br />

and Athlete Award<br />

Zachary Alvarado and Benita Munnerlyn<br />

Archie Griffin<br />

Sportsmanship Award<br />

Marissa Koob and Nick Marsh


Highlights from our outstanding 2013-14 seasons<br />

Baseball<br />

Finished with an undefeated conference<br />

record to win MVC Championship<br />

Won Section, District and Regional<br />

OHSAA Tournaments<br />

Won OHSAA DIII State Runner-Up honors<br />

First Team MVC Players: Kyle Davis, Blake<br />

Swanger and Cameron Varga<br />

MVC Player of the Year: Kyle Davis and<br />

Cameron Varga (pitcher)<br />

Gatorade Ohio Player of the Year Award:<br />

Cameron Varga<br />

Tampa Bay Rays signed right-handed<br />

pitcher Cameron Varga, their second<br />

round selection from the <strong>2014</strong> Major<br />

League Baseball First-Year Player Draft and<br />

the No. 60 pick overall<br />

All-Star Division III Baseball Coach of the<br />

Year: Jeff Keith<br />

All-Star Division III Baseball Player of the<br />

Year: Cameron Varga<br />

All-Star Division III Baseball First Team:<br />

Kyle Davis<br />

All-Star Division III Baseball First Team:<br />

Blake Swanger<br />

Basketball-Boys<br />

Clinched a share of the MVC Gray Division<br />

Championship, the first time since 2005<br />

Basketball-Girls<br />

First team MVC player: Marissa Koob<br />

District III Player of the Year: Marissa Koob<br />

Southwest Ohio All-District Div. III 1st<br />

Team: Marissa Koob<br />

Football<br />

Finished with an undefeated regular season<br />

to win MVC Championship<br />

Qualified for its fourth straight appearance<br />

in OHSAA playoffs<br />

First Team MVC players: Kyle Davis, Jacob<br />

Halter, Nick Marsh, Cameron Murray, Connor<br />

Osborne, Ryan Prescott and Tyler Renners<br />

MVC Player of the Year: Nick Marsh<br />

Anthony Munoz Offensive Lineman of the<br />

Year for Div. V: Ryan Prescott<br />

Golf-Boys<br />

Won the MVC Championship<br />

First Team MVC players: Sean Eslick and<br />

Noah Marshall<br />

Qualified for Districts<br />

Golf-Girls<br />

Qualified for Districts in only its second<br />

year as a team<br />

Lacrosse-Boys<br />

First Team MVC players: Jonah James<br />

and Cam Kennedy<br />

Soccer-Boys<br />

First Team MVC player: Will Phillips<br />

Soccer-Girls<br />

First Team MVC players: Katherine Meyer<br />

and Casey Ochs<br />

Southwest Ohio All-District Girls Div. II 1st<br />

Team: Casey Ochs<br />

Softball<br />

First Team MVC players: Alex Ledford &<br />

Cassidy Yeomans<br />

Athletic All-Star Division III Softball First<br />

Team: Cassidy Yeoman<br />

Swimming-Girls<br />

First Team MVC player: Kendall Hart<br />

(200 IM & 100 Butterfly)<br />

Sectional Champion: Kendall Hart<br />

(100 Butterfly)<br />

Qualified for State: Kendall Hart<br />

(100 Butterfly & 100 Backstroke)<br />

Division II All-Area Team: Kendall Hart<br />

Kendall Hart placed 3rd at State and set a<br />

new school record in the 100 Butterfly<br />

Tennis-Girls<br />

First Team MVC players: Allie Harker,<br />

Kimmi Bolsinger and Natalie van den Berg<br />

All seven varsity players qualified for<br />

Districts.<br />

Track & Field<br />

First Team MVC players: Morgan Bradley<br />

(high jump), Marissa Koob (shot put),<br />

Matthew Overstreet (400 m), Alex<br />

Stevens (pole vault) and Adam Baker,<br />

Ben Collado, Will Drosos and Matthew<br />

Overstreet (800 m relay)<br />

Qualified for Regionals: Morgan Bradley,<br />

Marissa Koob, Matthew Overstreet and<br />

Alex Stevens<br />

Morgan Bradley tied the school record in<br />

the high jump<br />

Marissa Koob set a new school record in<br />

the shot put<br />

Volleyball<br />

Finished with an undefeated regular season<br />

to win MVC Championship<br />

First Team MVC players: Emily Beckes and<br />

Rachel Wichmann<br />

MVC Player of the Year: Rachel Wichmann<br />

District 16 All City Team DIII: Emily Beckes<br />

and Rachel Wichmann<br />

District 16 All City Team DIII Player of the<br />

Year: Rachel Wichmann<br />

Wrestling<br />

First Team MVC players: Carson Brooks<br />

(112), Zachary Alvarado (132), Kealii<br />

Cummings (152)<br />

MVC Player of the Year: Kealii Cummings<br />

Sectional Champion: Zachary Alvarado<br />

(126)<br />

District Qualifiers: Zachary Alvarado<br />

(126), Kealii Cummings (152)<br />

Division II-III First Team: Zachary<br />

Alvarado (126)<br />

Southwest Ohio Wrestling Coaches<br />

Association All-Star: Zachary Alvarado<br />

(126)<br />

Zachary Alvarado set a new school record<br />

for number of career wins<br />

19


Boldly determined<br />

Winning Twice with Habitudes<br />

Habitudes is a national student-leadership course <strong>CHCA</strong> offers to freshman, sophomore and junior<br />

students who have participated in at least one sport during the school year. It is a 13-week class, held<br />

on Wednesday mornings before school begins.<br />

20<br />

by Amy Lutts,<br />

current <strong>CHCA</strong> parent of<br />

Colin ‘17, Megan ‘19 and<br />

Taylor ‘22<br />

Habitudes, a national student-leadership course<br />

we offer at <strong>CHCA</strong>, allows freshmen, sophomore and<br />

junior student athletes to learn about different aspects<br />

of leadership in team settings. The course is offered<br />

on Wednesday mornings before school begins and a<br />

rotation of speakers, including Matt Coleman, Michael<br />

Coleman, Amanda Moore and Mariah Warburton<br />

speak to the students and discuss the importance of<br />

leadership in community. Students who attend 80% of<br />

the classes or more by the end of the course receive<br />

medals for their participation.<br />

Our student athletes need a “growth process”, not<br />

just an “event”—a growth process that can engage<br />

“This program is unique in our area. I don’t know of<br />

another school in the Cincinnati area with a dedicated<br />

program cultivating student athletes as leaders.<br />

This certainly will benefit our athletics program, but it<br />

will benefit the school in general as well. At <strong>CHCA</strong> we<br />

equip students to lead and change the world and this<br />

program is just another way to accomplish that.”<br />

– Matt Coleman, <strong>CHCA</strong> Athletic Director<br />

them in dialogue and action. Habitudes calls this<br />

growth process EPIC Generation: Experiential in that<br />

they do not want a sage on the stage with a lecture for<br />

them; Participatory in that they want to participate<br />

in the outcomes of the program; Image-rich in that<br />

these students have grown to speak a language of<br />

images through exposure to television, video games<br />

and the Internet; and Connected in that they are both<br />

technologically and socially connected to the world<br />

around them. The program Habitudes consists of a<br />

10-minute video full of images that ignites discussion,<br />

followed by experience.<br />

Freshmen in the Habitudes program spend their<br />

course learning about “The Art of Self-Leadership”.<br />

The major themes discussed include the development<br />

of character, self-discipline, personal values,<br />

responsibility, initiative, self-esteem, time-management,<br />

construction of a support network, positive attitudes<br />

regarding conflict and a personal plan for growth.<br />

Sophomores learn about “The Art of Connection with<br />

Others”. Effective leaders must build personal power<br />

before exercising positional power. This course helps<br />

students build relationship skills in communication,<br />

social awareness, handling criticism, listening,<br />

encouragement, confrontation and more.<br />

Juniors focus on “The Art of Leading Others and<br />

Changing Culture”. The third year of the program<br />

consists of major leadership principles including<br />

casting vision, setting goals, leading effective teams,<br />

handling criticism and leveraging influence to positively<br />

impact others on the team.


Coaches & Staff<br />

Eric Taylor was named Football DV District Coach of the Year<br />

Bryan Daniel, the Boys’ Varsity Soccer Coach, was named the<br />

recipient of the OHSAA SEI (Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity)<br />

Award<br />

Mariah Warburton was named the Volleyball MVC and<br />

Southwest District Coach of the Year<br />

Julie Dietrich was named the MVC Boys’ Track Coach of<br />

the Year<br />

Jonathan Williams was named MVC Boys’ Golf Coach of<br />

the Year<br />

Jeff Keith was named MVC Boys’ Baseball Coach of the Year<br />

Adam Meyer, the Boys’ Varsity Wrestling Coach, was awarded<br />

the Frank Montgomery / James Wright Award<br />

Joe Lucas, our athletic trainer, began serving our athletes on a<br />

full-time basis and his service was expanded to the middle school<br />

as well.<br />

For the first time in history, all football and basketball games were<br />

broadcasted, as well as other athletic events.<br />

Baseball Goes to State<br />

It was a send-off worth remembering as<br />

students at EBL and the MS cheered them<br />

on the last week of school!


Exuberantly creative<br />

Children of Eden<br />

“There is no journey gone so far we cannot stop and change direction.”<br />

These are my favorite lyrics from the show “Children of Eden” sung by a<br />

loving Father comforting his children after generations of bad decisions<br />

and missed opportunities. This show was filled with messages of truth and<br />

love, and those messages, along with the cast dynamics, the freedom of<br />

creativity, and the dedication of everyone involved, resulted in one of the<br />

best theatrical experiences that I have ever had.<br />

22<br />

by Susan Jung,<br />

Director of Theatre<br />

The message of Children of Eden (which tells the story of Creation and The Fall in Act I and<br />

Noah and The Flood in Act II) can sometimes be overlooked by directors and cast members who<br />

focus too much on the wrath of God (named as “Father” in the script) and the distance that is<br />

created after the Fall. For me, the message to communicate was simple: God loves us as a Father<br />

loves his children, perfectly and unconditionally. Everything we do has the potential to break His<br />

heart with sorrow, or swell His heart with pride. The choice of free will is ours; the gift of it is His.<br />

Although the message was simple, the enormity of the show was not. We had one of the<br />

biggest casts ever. Every show has a different cast dynamic, regardless of its size. Sometimes<br />

the leads and ensemble don’t have much onstage time together, or there are certain groups<br />

that inherently form because of the way the show is written. However, this cast, more than any<br />

other, was truly a family that bonded in a deep and profound way. Several times the phrase<br />

“unconditional love” was used by cast members to describe the relationship that developed


among them. They spontaneously prayed together for a sick cast member,<br />

they welcomed several newcomers (both freshman and seniors) with open<br />

arms and hearts, they celebrated the achievements of hitting high notes,<br />

nailing fight choreography, perfecting African choreography, and blending<br />

like a collegiate level choir. They were truly all a beautiful family, and I can<br />

see that still existing months after the curtain closed on the show.<br />

Families have to exist together, much like the production team of a show.<br />

And I couldn’t be more blessed with the team that I have here at <strong>CHCA</strong>.<br />

It’s been said around town that we do things differently here and that our<br />

shows always seem “fresh”. I couldn’t agree more. I owe it all to the people<br />

that listen to my ideas and agree to be part of the collaborative process.<br />

I can dream here at <strong>CHCA</strong>. I called this show the result of my “untamed<br />

creativity.” This team doesn’t say “We can’t do that,’ they say ‘absolutely<br />

we can do that.” (and then we have to actually figure out HOW to do that,<br />

which is a whole other article). They say ‘yes’ to the ideas, they provide their<br />

own creativity, they encourage students to explore THEIR creativity (did<br />

you see that elephant head?). And the end result is that we all experience<br />

something thoughtful, moving, and spectacular that stays with its audience<br />

and cast for a lifetime. That is the true measure of a successful production.<br />

There are other appropriate ways to measure this. To be successful in<br />

a production as a crew member is to be invisible. To be successful in a<br />

production as an instrumentalist is to heighten and clarify. To be successful<br />

as a singer or actor is to communicate truth. I honestly believe that all were<br />

excellently done in Children of Eden. The story didn’t get lost in clumsy set<br />

changes, weak musical phrases, or fake emotions. The story was focused,<br />

enhanced, and sharpened. The story was what needed to be told. We all -<br />

cast, crew, and orchestra - were privileged to be chosen as storytellers.<br />

Now, don’t get me wrong, it is wonderful to win awards and have people<br />

outside your community validate your work, but I would venture to say<br />

that years from now when the students dig that video out and watch the<br />

show, they won’t remember who won what award, or what they said in their<br />

acceptance speech (unless their parents posted it on Facebook). They will<br />

watch and remember with fondness the feeling of being part of something<br />

that moved people, that strengthened faith in them and in their friends, and<br />

they will cherish all those moments that piece together the unique fabric<br />

that was Children of Eden. And for many years to come, I will be doing the<br />

same thing.<br />

Families have to exist together, much like the production<br />

team of a show. And I couldn’t be more blessed with the<br />

team that I have here at <strong>CHCA</strong>.<br />

23


Exuberantly creative<br />

ArtBeat <strong>2014</strong><br />

Mona Summers, Director of Fine Arts<br />

ArtBeat <strong>2014</strong> by<br />

ArtBeat <strong>2014</strong> “Created to be Creative” marked our 16th Annual Fine Arts Festival. This campus-wide event was a huge success thanks<br />

to ArtBeat Chair Tammy Pacheco, Performance Chair Michael Kuremsky, the ArtBeat Committee, <strong>CHCA</strong>’s Fine Arts faculty and staff and<br />

300+ volunteers. It was also successful due to the support of our presenting sponsor Friends of Fine Arts, our corporate sponsor Cindy<br />

Coggins and the Coggins Group at Morgan Stanley and eight other ArtBeat sponsors – all for whom we are so thankful.<br />

24<br />

16 years ago when I originally had this vision<br />

for a fine arts festival, I certainly did not envision<br />

the spectacular that this event would become.<br />

While the entire <strong>CHCA</strong> arts program is my<br />

passion, ArtBeat has a special place in my heart.<br />

ArtBeat is that one day where our entire <strong>CHCA</strong><br />

community has an opportunity to come together<br />

and celebrate the arts, our students and our<br />

Creator who gave us the gift of arts. Our students<br />

continue to amaze me with their talents, passion,<br />

hard work and determination for excellence.<br />

This inspires our entire Fine Arts faculty and<br />

staff to continue to grow what is one of the most<br />

outstanding Fine Arts programs in our city.<br />

ArtBeat by the numbers:<br />

Over 2,300 people attended the event.<br />

The Hang Your Art Out art exhibit featured over 1,000<br />

pieces of student artwork.<br />

Over 750 students performed on three stages.<br />

Over 640 arts and crafts projects were completed at<br />

our 8 Hands-on-Art stations.<br />

The ArtBeat <strong>2014</strong> poster featured 8 students’ artwork.<br />

In the MSL HS Juried Art Competition, 19 cash prizes and<br />

awards were presented in 8 different categories, which were<br />

judged by 5 community artists and art educators.<br />

7 professional artists (including two alumni) and 4 students<br />

were featured as this year’s Demonstrating Artists.<br />

13 different sponsors provided delicious food and drinks.


fine arts<br />

awards<br />

Exuberantly creative<br />

This year was another wonderful and talent-filled year for Fine Arts at <strong>CHCA</strong>!<br />

Students across all four schools earned honors and awards for their hard work and<br />

creativity in theater, instrumental music, vocal music, dance and visual arts. Although<br />

the awards are not the most important part about participation in the Fine Arts, the<br />

following students had the joy of being recognized for their outstanding creativity:<br />

Sophomores James Rootring and Lauren Slouffman competed in<br />

the finals for the Cincinnati Arts Association Overture Awards and won! James<br />

won in the vocal music category while Lauren won in the dance category.<br />

Senior Sarah Cunningham and sophomore Hannah Donovan<br />

each won silver medals in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for their artwork.<br />

Earning a National medal from this prestigious scholarship program places Sarah<br />

and Hannah in the top one percent of 255,000 participants.<br />

The <strong>CHCA</strong> Dance Program brought home 10 trophies from the Jamfest<br />

Dance Supernationals held in Northern Kentucky this past spring!<br />

Armleder students Jireh Burton and Mannie Tait were selected as<br />

lead dancers and MS students Doug Hansford and Peyton Bach were<br />

selected as understudies in the Cokesbury Publishing and Dunlop Productions<br />

2015 Vacation Bible School Video Project. The video will be distributed worldwide.<br />

The MSL HS Theater Production of “Children of Eden” earned 16<br />

Cappies Nominations and eight Cappies awards including: Best Musical, Best<br />

Song-“Let There Be”, Lead Actor-Gabe Hoyer, Supporting Actress-Merrie<br />

Drees, Featured Actress-Anna Mirlisena, Female<br />

Dancer-Hannah Chait, Creativity-Hannah Rhoads<br />

and Grace Wesson, and Best Orchestra.<br />

Ivy Guan won Best of Show in the juried art competition at<br />

ArtBeat.<br />

Over 20 MS and MSL HS students participated in the<br />

OMEA District 14 Honor Choir, Jr. High Honor Orchestra,<br />

Honor Orchestra and Honor Band.<br />

Congratulations to these students and the winners of<br />

the many other awards and honors achieved this year!<br />

What started out as a small group of students dancing competitively under the tutelage<br />

of Melissa Kidd, has evolved into something much larger. Sashaying onto stage this coming<br />

year is the <strong>CHCA</strong> Dance Academy, a dance school just for <strong>CHCA</strong> students. Classes will<br />

be available for students of all ages and experience levels—from basic technique classes<br />

in jazz and ballet to competitive dance options. Starting in Kindergarten, students can<br />

learn the technique and build up to a performance or competitive level as they get older.<br />

This new unique program makes it easy for students to learn, perform and compete in the<br />

company of <strong>CHCA</strong> friends.<br />

25


“<strong>CHCA</strong> freed me to discover<br />

who I really am.”<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> class of ’14 graduate<br />

Fully prepared & boundlessly hopeful<br />

Class of <strong>2014</strong><br />

Beginning with the end in<br />

mind, <strong>CHCA</strong> graduates young<br />

adults fully prepared to<br />

succeed in college and beyond;<br />

to engage effectively and<br />

lovingly with different cultures,<br />

viewpoints, and ideas; and to<br />

achieve significant impact and<br />

influence with discerning<br />

wisdom, courageous<br />

curiosity, and resilient<br />

Christian faith.<br />

Leading Lives of Impact and Influence<br />

• 80% completed Advanced Placement (college level) classes<br />

during their high school career<br />

• 44% are recognized with High Honors<br />

• 11% earned National Merit recognition<br />

• Seniors fulfilled over 27,000 hours of service, averaging<br />

200-250 hours per student<br />

• 100% traveled abroad, participated in an internship, explored<br />

a personal passion or talent, or served on a mission trip through<br />

Intersession, <strong>CHCA</strong>’s unique experiential learning program<br />

• 90% competed in athletics or participated in fine arts<br />

• Students launched <strong>CHCA</strong>’s first student-run enterprise,<br />

The Leaning Eagle Fair Trade Coffee Shop #leaningeagle<br />

Leaning into the Future<br />

• 127 students will attend 64 colleges and universities<br />

in 23 states & the District of Columbia<br />

• Students received over $12 million in college scholarships<br />

• Over 75% received merit scholarships/grants<br />

• 16% plan to compete in college athletics


Graduation weekend kicked off with the student send-off, Diaspeiro. Alumna<br />

Rebecca Chait ’05 encouraged the Class of <strong>2014</strong> to stay connected to <strong>CHCA</strong> after<br />

graduation, and reminded them that God is always making their journey beside them. Sarah<br />

Ritter, a member of the Class of <strong>2014</strong>, shared ‘the gift of time’ with her fellow classmates.<br />

At graduation on Sunday afternoon, Salutatorian Kimberly Bolsinger celebrated the<br />

“overwhelming sense of community and spirit” she experienced at <strong>CHCA</strong> and shared<br />

how thankful she was to find “a perfect fit” in the Class of <strong>2014</strong>. Valedictorian Hannah<br />

Chait reminded her fellow classmates to serve their purpose. “Living to serve Him in that<br />

purpose,” she shared, “will bring you true success.”<br />

Commencement speaker Dr. Santa Ono expounded on the importance of purpose.<br />

“You are each a gift of God. You have a purpose,” he encouraged the graduates. “My hope<br />

is that you will live your life purposefully. Do not leave character or integrity to chance.<br />

Live purposefully, just as Jesus did.”<br />

Q&A<br />

with our Val and Sal<br />

Interview with the Class of <strong>2014</strong>’s<br />

Kimmi Bolsinger, salutatorian<br />

& Hannah Chait, valedictorian<br />

by Morgan Massa ‘14<br />

What was your most impactful<br />

experience at <strong>CHCA</strong>?<br />

Kimmi: Through the various sports teams that I’ve been involved<br />

with and the other student organizations like student government<br />

and even the classes I’ve been in, I’ve loved being able<br />

to form a sense of community with the people around me.<br />

Hannah: My freshman year, I went on a mission trip to Nashville,<br />

Tennessee serving the homeless living there. This inspired<br />

me to lead a service group serving the homeless here in downtown<br />

Cincinnati with City Gospel Mission. Leading this service group has<br />

greatly impacted me, teaching me about homelessness and what I<br />

can do to serve them.<br />

How has <strong>CHCA</strong> prepared you?<br />

K Because I’ve had to balance playing three varsity sports along<br />

with the workload involved with taking multiple APs, I have<br />

learned a lot about compartmentalizing and managing my time.<br />

H My 13 years at <strong>CHCA</strong> have shaped me into a person eager to<br />

accept a challenge. I feel more than prepared to study chemical<br />

engineering after learning to balance a busy schedule in high<br />

school, taking on a rigorous academic schedule with multiple AP<br />

classes while still pursuing what I love--community service, piano,<br />

dance, and musical theater.<br />

How would you describe the relationships<br />

you’ve made at <strong>CHCA</strong>?<br />

K I honestly can’t imagine going to any other school. The<br />

friends that I have made at <strong>CHCA</strong> are people that I hope to<br />

keep in contact with my whole life. They have both helped<br />

me in my faith and made me a better person. Furthermore, I<br />

have to give a ton of credit to my teachers for being so great<br />

to me. It’s amazing how much they care about not only how<br />

we’re doing in class but also how we’re doing outside of school.<br />

I definitely hope to get involved in the alumni program after I<br />

graduate, and stay active in the <strong>CHCA</strong> community.<br />

H The friendships I’ve made at <strong>CHCA</strong> are so special to me.<br />

Many of my friends I’ve known since kindergarten, so they are like<br />

family to me, always supporting and encouraging me in anything I<br />

do. Not to mention, the teachers I’ve built relationships with have<br />

impacted me immensely. For example, it was my AP chemistry<br />

teacher who inspired me to study chemical engineering in college.<br />

In short, the relationships I’ve made both with my peers and<br />

teachers have shown me firsthand how meaningful the community<br />

of <strong>CHCA</strong> is, and how grateful I am to be apart of it.<br />

What are your plans for the future?<br />

K I’m planning on attending Dartmouth in the fall and hope to<br />

major in Economics. Afterwards, I would love to go on to graduate<br />

business school and then see what happens from there.<br />

H I am attending University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in<br />

the fall to study chemical engineering in the James Scholar Honors<br />

Program, and then I’ll see where God leads me from there!<br />

27


300 Service Hours<br />

200 Service Hours<br />

Fully prepared & boundlessly hopeful<br />

<strong>2014</strong> Service Awards<br />

400 Service Hours<br />

500 Service Hours<br />

28<br />

700 Service Hours<br />

1000 Service Hours<br />

200 Service Hours<br />

Students who performed 200-299 service<br />

hours: Mackenzie Ackerman, Cole Eisenhauer,<br />

Tim Fuller, Becky Hammond, RD Hofferberth,<br />

Sabrina Kazee, Mindy Kong, Emily Martin,<br />

Conner Osborne, Delaney Scott, Nathalie<br />

van den Berg, Mikey Collins, Jess Elder, James<br />

Gravely, Sam Hayes, Tom Jester, Conner<br />

Kirbabas, Maggie Lahti, Conner Murray,<br />

Caroline Schutte and Jason Simpson.<br />

300 Service Hours<br />

Students who performed 300-399 service<br />

hours: Charles Andrews, Cole Conley, Raelyn<br />

Klusmeyer, Morgan Massa, Will Phillips, Sidney<br />

Young, Hannah Chait, Rachel Finch, Alex<br />

Mashny, Daniel Morgan and Kyle Steidle.<br />

400 Service Hours<br />

Students who performed 400-499 service<br />

hours: Sarah Cunningham, Benita Munnerlyn,<br />

Ellie Parker, Alex Stevens, Sarah Morgason,<br />

Sarah Ottenjohn, Trenton Pfister and Grace<br />

Strader.<br />

500 Service Hours<br />

Students who performed 500-699 service hours:<br />

Casey Ochs, Chandler Huffer, Michael Schwabe<br />

and Ellie Coggins each logged more than 500<br />

service hours during their high school careers.<br />

700 Service Hours<br />

Olivia Lee performed more than 700 hours of<br />

service over four years.<br />

1000 Service Hours<br />

Caroline Kuremsky performed over 1,000 hours<br />

of service during her high school career.<br />

Presidential Service Award<br />

Olivia Lee (Bronze), Morgan Massa (Bronze),<br />

Morgan Shively (Bronze), Caroline Kuremsky<br />

(Gold)<br />

SOS Leadership Award<br />

Caroline Kuremsky, Olivia Lee, Morgan Massa,<br />

Ellie Parker, Michael Schwabe, Sidney Young<br />

Mayerson Service Leadership<br />

Caroline Kuremsky


44% of our seniors were recognized with High Honors at this year’s Academic Signing event<br />

“<strong>CHCA</strong> challenged me to think about the kind of person I want to be and the<br />

impact I can have as an individual.”<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> class of ’14 graduate<br />

Lifers Picnic<br />

(L-R:) Hannah Chait,<br />

Sarah Ottenjohn and Sarah<br />

Cunningham reminisce with<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> first grade teacher<br />

Mrs. Suzanne Collins.<br />

“Our teachers taught us there are no easy answers.<br />

They made us wrestle with hard questions in every<br />

subject. It’s much more rewarding to think deeply.”<br />

Mr. Bagby and Zachary<br />

Alvarado greet each other.<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> class of ’14 graduate<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> seniors flip through yearbooks<br />

from their elementary and<br />

middle school years.<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> third grade teachers Mrs. Holly Getter and Mrs. Nancy<br />

Anderson catch up with students from years past.<br />

29


Graduation reflection Fully prepared & boundlessly hopeful<br />

How<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong><br />

Shaped<br />

My Life<br />

by Ellie Coggins ‘14<br />

For the past thirteen years of my life, I have been at <strong>CHCA</strong>. Although it feels like only<br />

yesterday that I was stepping off of the yellow school bus for my first day of kindergarten<br />

with Mrs. Johnson, I can without a doubt in my mind affirm that <strong>CHCA</strong> has fully<br />

prepared me for my future, in college and beyond. From kindergarten to my senior year of<br />

high school, I have been prepared both academically and spiritually to be able to go out<br />

into the world and be an active citizen.<br />

A tremendous thank you must go out to the many teachers<br />

I have been blessed with for instilling in me a love of learning.<br />

I have without a doubt received a quality education that has<br />

prepared me to move into my next level of learning. But more<br />

important than having a good education, I have received<br />

incredible encouragement. When I was in kindergarten, I was<br />

given encouragement when I was learning how to read and<br />

words on a page still looked like a foreign language to me; in fifth<br />

grade, I was encouraged in my band class when every other note<br />

I played was a squeak; and in high school when I was delving<br />

into my love of writing, my English teachers worked extra hard<br />

to show me that my love of writing was a true talent that should<br />

be continued. All of this encouragement played out to make me<br />

passionate about learning - something that will be vital to me as<br />

I continue to college and into my career down the road.<br />

Far more important than academics, <strong>CHCA</strong> has prepared<br />

me spiritually, and I am fully confident that I can move into my<br />

next phase of life grounded in what I believe. My faith journey<br />

began because of <strong>CHCA</strong>, when I accepted Jesus into my heart<br />

as a five-year old during Spiritual Emphasis Week. From there,<br />

my faith has only grown. Throughout all thirteen years, I have<br />

learned not only Bible basics, but I have also discovered my<br />

own views on various Christian viewpoints – from theological<br />

issues presented in my Christian thought class to bioethical<br />

issues from my Bioethics class.<br />

By far, I am most thankful for the spiritual lessons I learned<br />

on my most recent Winter Term Intercession trip to Kenya<br />

(cover story). I spent those two weeks playing with kids at St.<br />

Nicholas’ Orphanage, experiencing Masai culture, going on a<br />

safari, and playing band concerts, among many other things.<br />

We had the unique opportunity to meet a girl named Emily<br />

while at the home of Masai woman Peninah, whose God-given<br />

mission is to rescue child brides - a form of slavery which is a<br />

continuing problem among the Masai. Emily was a child bride<br />

who ran away from an arranged marriage to Peninah’s home<br />

while we were there. Had we not been there when we were,<br />

we would never have had the opportunity to meet Emily and<br />

see the true impact of Peninah’s mission. In our own small way,<br />

too, we hope we showed God’s love to Emily just as Peninah<br />

showed love to all of her rescued girls and even to us visitors.<br />

Most importantly, I learned the lesson of trusting in God’s plans<br />

and in His unfailing love in a way far more impactful than any<br />

class could ever teach me.<br />

As I am about to embark on the next huge phase of my<br />

life, the lessons I have learned at <strong>CHCA</strong> – both academic and<br />

spiritual – will stay with me the rest of my life. I know I am<br />

fully prepared academically to excel in college, where I will be<br />

attending The Ohio State University to study environmental<br />

science and business. I also know I am fully prepared spiritually<br />

to defend my faith in the future, wherever that future takes me.<br />

Even if I cannot answer all of the difficult spiritual<br />

questions, I am confident because I know I have a God<br />

who loves me and who I can trust.<br />

Ellie has received the honor of being named an Eminence Fellow as she attends<br />

OSU this Fall. The Eminence Fellows Program and Scholarship is Ohio State’s<br />

premier merit award, offered to just 25 stellar new first-year students admitted<br />

to the Columbus campus for Fall semester. The honor includes full cost of attendance<br />

at Ohio State for four years, plus a $3,000 enrichment grant accessible<br />

after the first year of successful study. Recipients of the Eminence Scholarship<br />

typically rank in the top three percent of their graduating classes and have an<br />

ACT composite score of 34 or higher or combined SAT Critical Reading and Math<br />

score of 1520 or higher.* (*information provided by The Ohio State University)<br />

30


Inspiringly benevolent<br />

What I learned from Mr. Steitz<br />

by Molly Packer ‘10<br />

I learned a great deal from Mr. Ed Steitz when I had him as<br />

a math and science teacher in the fourth grade nearly 13 years<br />

ago. I learned that practice makes perfect when it comes to<br />

long division. I learned that the difference between “may”<br />

and “can” is crucial when asking to go to the restroom. I even<br />

learned that the solar system can be fun when our whole class<br />

put on the annual Penelope Planet play for our parents. The<br />

most important thing I learned from Mr. Steitz was that he not<br />

only cared about my education, but also for my happiness and<br />

well-being.<br />

After 25 years of faithful service to <strong>CHCA</strong>, Ed Steitz retired<br />

this spring and plans to move to Colorado with his wife where<br />

he can be closer to his family.<br />

Having been at <strong>CHCA</strong> since the beginning, Ed Steitz has<br />

touched the lives of nearly every student to pass through the<br />

school’s doors. He worked as a fourth grade teacher at first and<br />

then moved up to the Middle School where he taught fifth grade<br />

math. “I am honored to say that all four of our boys had Mr.<br />

Steitz,” <strong>CHCA</strong> mom Shelley Hoyer shared. “We are so grateful<br />

for the amazing math foundation he instilled in them all.” Don<br />

Faimon, a <strong>CHCA</strong> father, commented “Mr. Steitz was a fabulous<br />

teacher to our kids. He made math fun and learning a pleasure.”<br />

But Ed Steitz’s influence was not only educational. Students,<br />

parents and fellow teachers alike remember the prayerful<br />

attitude Mr. Steitz had concerning his students. “For all his<br />

masterful teaching abilities, what impacts children the most is<br />

the Christian role model he provides,” Nancy Buckman, Upper<br />

Elementary Principal and mother of one of Steitz’s former<br />

students, stated. “Ed loves his students and prays for them and<br />

their families on a regular basis.”<br />

Students Abigail and Elliott Armstrong who both had Steitz<br />

for fifth grade math remember the comical way Steitz related to<br />

his students. “Mr. Steitz always told funny puns,” Elliott said. “I<br />

understood the way he taught.” Other students remember the<br />

large collection of rubber ducks that stood for more than what<br />

it seemed. Each duck that Steitz displayed in his room stands<br />

for the person from whom he received it and stands as a daily<br />

reminder to pray for that person and his/her family.<br />

Fellow teacher Nancy Isenberg who taught at the Elementary<br />

School with Steitz spoke of his constant representation of<br />

Christ-like love at the school. “Ed has always been such a<br />

positive and upbeat influence on the environment of <strong>CHCA</strong>,<br />

both in the Elementary building and the Middle School,” she<br />

said. “Ed carries with him a deep abiding faith and joy that<br />

seems to always spill over into laughter - helping to put any<br />

student at ease and any situation into perspective.”<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> families, teachers and administrators will always<br />

be thankful for the impact that Steitz has had on our school.<br />

Congratulations for 25 years of excellence and impact, and enjoy<br />

your retirement, Mr. Steitz!<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> families, teachers and administrators will always be<br />

thankful for the impact that Steitz has had on our school.<br />

Congratulations for 25 years of excellence and impact, and<br />

enjoy your retirement, Mr. Steitz!<br />

31


Inspiringly benevolant<br />

Principal Cammie Montgomery,<br />

A Story of Accountability<br />

and Love<br />

by Pamela Bailey, Executive Assistant, Armleder<br />

32<br />

“Accountability with a deep sense of love…” are the choiceful<br />

and meaningful words Randy Brunk used to described Armleder’s<br />

Principal, Mrs. Cammie Montgomery, at this year’s faculty and<br />

staff closing assembly.<br />

The vision of <strong>CHCA</strong> states that “Cincinnati Hills Christian<br />

Academy will unleash each student’s God-given gifts through<br />

Christ-centered academic excellence. We are devoted to developing<br />

the whole person, and instilling a lifelong passion for learning,<br />

leading and serving”. Principal Montgomery takes this vision<br />

very seriously, and believes the start of the day is critical to each<br />

student’s success.<br />

So let’s begin with the start of the day. On any<br />

given school day, you’ll find Principal Montgomery<br />

prominently waving in the carpool line, at the door,<br />

or in the lobby waiting to greet each and every<br />

student and parent with an enormous smile, a hug,<br />

high-five, or fist bump. She often follows that with a<br />

personal comment about a recent accomplishment,<br />

happy birthday, field trip reminder, well wishes for<br />

a test or quiz that is being given later that day, or<br />

even an inquiry on an ailing sibling or family member<br />

(yes, she knows all of this). For that student who


students who dedicated themselves to being timely to school,<br />

having perfect attendance, and stellar behavior. She came up<br />

with a Principal’s Lock-In for the first quarter of each year and<br />

a STAR Luncheon for the second quarter of the year. These are<br />

highly coveted invitations, and students are extremely honored<br />

to be treated to these special events that are always fun and<br />

filled with surprises. <strong>CHCA</strong> parents Dan and Kim Meador have<br />

been supporters of Cammie’s annual events. Kim sums it up this<br />

way, “I love that in all things she brings God’s love to all of the<br />

students.”<br />

You can’t help<br />

but be energized<br />

and encouraged<br />

by this amazing<br />

woman whose<br />

love of God shines<br />

through and<br />

permeates<br />

the air.<br />

shuffles in a little sleepy-eyed,<br />

Principal Montgomery’s booming<br />

voice and enthusiasm wins him over<br />

and puts a bounce back in his step.<br />

You can’t help but be energized and<br />

encouraged by this amazing woman<br />

whose love of God shines through<br />

and permeates the air. As nurse<br />

Kathy Zabbatino states “Principal<br />

Montgomery has such a heart for<br />

Armleder”.<br />

The bell soon rings for the “official”<br />

start of the day. On Mondays,<br />

Principal Montgomery has a popular<br />

segment in the Channel 7 news “Manners are Magic” and as<br />

soon as she can, she heads off with her famous rolling desk-- on<br />

a mission. She has extremely high standards for her students,<br />

and she’s on a roll, literally. She may have a student that has<br />

his second tardy of the week, so she’s emailing the teacher to<br />

inquire, follow-up and reiterate the importance of being timely<br />

to school. All the while, she is en route to the fourth floor<br />

where middle school students have recently taken a test and<br />

a couple have scores that reflect well below what she knows<br />

their ability to be. Savvy students now know the sound of the<br />

cart and expect to have a personal meeting in the hall about the<br />

score, their plan for correcting, and a hug; but don’t give her any<br />

excuses—this is a mistake clearly to be made once and once<br />

only! However, “cart” meetings are often more celebratory.<br />

Favorite meetings are those of congratulations and kudos<br />

for jobs well done. What students can count on day-to-day<br />

is their Principal’s unconditional love and support. Principal<br />

Montgomery wants every student to own their education and<br />

to be fully accountable and responsible for their learning - and<br />

she makes sure they all know it. In her first year as principal,<br />

Mrs. Montgomery determined she had to acknowledge the<br />

For those students in grades 3-8 with all A’s, they receive an<br />

invitation in Chapel for an event with Principal Montgomery.<br />

These events tend to be unique and different each year, such<br />

as a Cincinnati Cyclones game, a newly released movie with<br />

popcorn, a lunch at a downtown location or a private tasting<br />

tour of Findlay Market, to name a few. She does like to have<br />

fun, so she will always make sure the fun factor is high for these<br />

special events!<br />

After three years of sending faculty and staff to leadership<br />

seminars, Principal Montgomery will be extending leadership<br />

opportunities formally to the students as well. This is the next<br />

step in her vision of students owning and being responsible<br />

for their education. The students will be offered leadership<br />

opportunities on various teams supported by staff members<br />

to include areas such as: communications, technology, news<br />

team, events, recycling, and more. Most, if not all of these<br />

initiatives will be planned and supported by student teams. With<br />

ownership, comes pride in knowing not only are you trusted with<br />

an important role, but you accomplished something meaningful!<br />

The Bible verse that comes to mind for Principal<br />

Montgomery’s plans for Armleder in the coming year comes<br />

from Habakkuk 2:2-3, Write the vision; make it plain on tablets,<br />

so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed<br />

time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for<br />

it; it will surely come; it will not delay.<br />

Mrs. Montgomery and her staff are boldly determined to help<br />

students discover, hone and steward the God-given gifts and<br />

talents of each student, and to fold each individual into the<br />

story that is <strong>CHCA</strong> - - a story in which each child owns and is<br />

responsible for his and her education and a story where those<br />

gifts are used to serve God’s purpose in His kingdom.<br />

33


A Parent’s Legacy<br />

by Cindy Coggins, <strong>CHCA</strong> Alumni Parent of Patrick Coggins ‘04 & Ellie Coggins ‘14<br />

Sometimes God<br />

presents us with opportunities<br />

to serve in the<br />

most unlikely places.<br />

In 2001, my son Patrick<br />

was playing football for<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong>, and no one was<br />

planning pre-game meals. That just didn’t sit right with me, and God<br />

was nudging me to do something. So I began working with <strong>CHCA</strong>’s<br />

trainer, Bill Shomaker, on the “ideal” pre-game meal. Along with<br />

other dedicated moms who were for the most part parents of our<br />

sons who played for an undefeated 8th grade season, we began the<br />

fantastic journey of “mom meals.” We were an enthusiastic set of<br />

Football Moms! And what a blessing – we saw our sons before the<br />

games and had the fantastic opportunity to serve them as well as<br />

pray for their safety. Hence – my marvelous journey took a unique<br />

turn in supporting the <strong>CHCA</strong> football team.<br />

Fast forward to the fall of 2010 when Ellie entered high school. Now<br />

this child was not an athlete – rather, an avid musician. Ellie couldn’t<br />

get enough of it – Lab Band, EJO, Sacred Music Concert, and of<br />

course, Pep Band. So now, football was back in my life in a completely<br />

different way, and I was presented with how to support the Pep<br />

Band in order for them to encourage and support the football team?<br />

During Ellie’s Freshman and Sophomore years, I would bring treats<br />

and waters when possible. Then in 2012, the stadium renovation<br />

happened in the stands and around the press box, which now offered<br />

a patio and enabled the pep band to sit in the stands again with the<br />

crowd and other students. As I found myself more and more involved<br />

with Dan Grantham in organizing various needs for the instrumental<br />

program, an idea came to me. And when I have an idea I just have<br />

to get on with it (recall, ‘mom meals’). There God was, tugging at<br />

me again with that still, small voice – do something to support and<br />

encourage these kids. And that was all I needed to push forward.<br />

That was the beginning of the patio grilling. At first, the plan was<br />

to grill only at half time for the pep band. But God had something<br />

bigger in mind. We soon birthed what is now known as the ‘student<br />

patio’. For the past two football seasons, <strong>CHCA</strong> family and friends<br />

have enjoyed the wonderful aroma of the patio grill for each entire<br />

game, serving all <strong>CHCA</strong> students and pep band members free food<br />

and drink. Many volunteers – all pep band parents – willingly and<br />

joyfully served the entire student body. What a fabulous “gift” to see<br />

the instrumental department bridging with the athletic department!<br />

I believe bringing together the two worlds of athletics and music is<br />

the legacy I leave the school. At <strong>CHCA</strong>, we say that we believe in the<br />

‘whole child’ - that we are trying to develop well-rounded Christians<br />

to enter the world with varied experiences and with an appreciation of<br />

each person’s talents. In this one small way, I hope I have modeled that<br />

respect for each unique student. I pray that others continue to carry on<br />

the tradition and pour love on all of our students, celebrating all of their<br />

talents.<br />

Everything I have ever done over the years at <strong>CHCA</strong> - from football<br />

to fine arts - has been grounded in verses from I Peter 4:10-11… “Each<br />

one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully<br />

administering God’s grace in its various forms…If anyone serves<br />

he should do it with the strength God provides so that in all things<br />

God may be praised through Jesus Christ To Him be the glory and<br />

the power forever and ever. Amen”<br />

The student patio was fully funded by the Coggins family and other<br />

generous volunteers and donors. Now that the last Coggins child has<br />

graduated, our prayer is that other families will work to carry on<br />

the tradition of not only the ‘student patio’ experience, but of<br />

legacies that celebrate our children’s gifts and carry on traditions<br />

that will serve <strong>CHCA</strong> for the next 25 years and beyond!<br />

34


Alumni News<br />

by Casey (Sutherly) Purnhagen ‘00<br />

Resiliently faithful<br />

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting the newest class agents. They are impressive on so many fronts, and I can’t help<br />

but smile at the stories they tell, because they sound so much like my own. They leave <strong>CHCA</strong> with lifetime friendships, full of<br />

questions, their faith resilient and ready to engage with a hurting world. They are humble enough to serve and fully prepared to lead.<br />

The class of <strong>2014</strong> is the twentieth to graduate from <strong>CHCA</strong> – can you believe it? They join over 1600 alumni around the globe,<br />

and we look forward to how we can support them as they shine their light and soar into this next season of life.<br />

Our Alumni Committee works hard to connect alumni back to <strong>CHCA</strong>, to each other, and to the greater <strong>CHCA</strong> community.<br />

Here are just a few of the ways alumni connected during this past year...<br />

To <strong>CHCA</strong><br />

Academy Nights Live: April 25-26 alumni<br />

joined faculty and current students on<br />

stage for a fun Saturday Night Live-style<br />

performance of sketches, skits, and improv.<br />

Rob Fahrmeier (’98), Jenn (Reynolds)<br />

Schmidt (’00) and Logan Lally (’12) took<br />

advantage of this first-time opportunity<br />

to re-engage with the parts of <strong>CHCA</strong> they<br />

loved the most.<br />

Alumni Chapel: May 7 worship was led by<br />

our talented alumni Will LoVellette (‘10), Jen<br />

Kaufman (’01), Ellen Hodges (‘11), Matthew<br />

Alvarado (’11) and David Snyder (’97) who<br />

gave an inspiring message that focused on<br />

being genuine and engaging humbly with the<br />

world, knowing you don’t have all the answers.<br />

In an effort to engage our alumni not able to<br />

be with us in person, chapel was streamed live<br />

online for alumni around the globe.<br />

Homecoming Extravaganza (formerly Fall<br />

Festival) Despite the pouring rain, many<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> alumni and their families joined in<br />

the combined festivities including listening<br />

to the live performances from our MSL<br />

High School EJO and Steel Drum Band<br />

while sharing in fellowship and building<br />

community as we cheered the Eagles to a<br />

shutout against New Miami.<br />

Alumni Cookout: May 19 Dan Grantham<br />

and other faculty hosted alumni for a<br />

cookout back on campus. It was a great<br />

chance for some of our local alums (and<br />

especially those finishing a year of college)<br />

to grab a burger and catch up.<br />

To each other<br />

Regional Alumni Events: March 11 we had<br />

our most well-attended event to date! More<br />

than 30 local alumni plus teachers and faculty<br />

enjoyed time reconnecting at Keystone Grill<br />

in Clifton. These regional events are growing<br />

in popularity and we’re looking for locations<br />

outside Cincinnati for future events.<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Football: November 17 we faced<br />

Hamilton-Badin in the second round of<br />

playoffs at Mason High School. Alumni football<br />

players and fans from as far back as 1998 met<br />

to reconnect and cheer on the Eagles.<br />

To the greater <strong>CHCA</strong> community<br />

Alumni Business Network: Quarterly<br />

networking events are held for those in the<br />

greater-Cincinnati business community.<br />

ABN exists to create connections, support<br />

job searches and career advancement, and<br />

ultimately to impact current students as<br />

experienced professionals and mentors.<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> Business Roundtable: Alumni<br />

are joining parents and business-owners<br />

to develop a roundtable of trusted<br />

professionals and network of peer<br />

businesses in the <strong>CHCA</strong> community.<br />

Looking ahead, we have work to do. We<br />

want our alumni to connect with us, but<br />

we know that begins with how we connect<br />

to them. Here’s a glimpse of what we’re<br />

working on:<br />

• Developing an Alumni Association<br />

• Streamlining our communications<br />

• Sharing more of what alumni want to<br />

know<br />

• Engaging older alumni as spiritual,<br />

academic, and professional mentors<br />

for younger alumni<br />

In closing, a quick note to the class of 1995,<br />

<strong>2014</strong>, and all those in between: Please<br />

come back to visit! Stay connected with<br />

us. Share your ideas and thoughts on how<br />

we can better support and engage you<br />

as you impact the world. You matter to<br />

us. We are proud of all you have and all<br />

you will accomplish. There’s nothing that<br />

proves the value of <strong>CHCA</strong> like you!<br />

35


alumni<br />

Class notes<br />

36<br />

Class of 1996<br />

Isaac Gould and his wife Christy celebrated<br />

the birth of their fourth son, Toby on January<br />

6, <strong>2014</strong> and Isaac’s ordination in the<br />

Evangelical Presbyterian Church on March<br />

23, <strong>2014</strong>. His brother, Aaron Gould ’95 visited<br />

from Washington state for the ordination<br />

service. Isaac currently serves as the<br />

assistant pastor of Evangelical Community<br />

Church in Cincinnati. Their other children<br />

are Levi (5 years old), Owen (3½ years old),<br />

and Silas (2 years old).<br />

Class of 1997<br />

Katie Robinson<br />

Smith and husband,<br />

Jeremy answered<br />

God’s call<br />

to foster children.<br />

Aubreigh came<br />

to them in November<br />

of 2011<br />

as a two-week<br />

old infant attached<br />

to oxygen<br />

and a monitor<br />

for about three months. Immediately, they<br />

knew they wanted to adopt and after many<br />

bumps in the road with her birth parents<br />

drifting in and out of the process, they were<br />

able to formally adopt her on April 1, <strong>2014</strong>.<br />

Nick came to them from another family as<br />

a 4-year old in 2012 and they adopted him<br />

last summer. Katie is a stay-at-home mom<br />

and Jeremy is a Cincinnati firefighter. They<br />

reside in Anderson, Ohio.<br />

Class of 1999<br />

Samuel Schottenstein is developing his<br />

own company called Scholar Compass. His<br />

company is designed to help students find<br />

scholarships and assists them with getting<br />

into college. Scholar Compass has been<br />

featured in Cincinnati Magazine, as well as<br />

being the cover story for the Annual School<br />

Guide. Recently, his company hosted a joint<br />

conference with Star 93.3 and Indiana Wesleyan<br />

University.<br />

Class of 2000<br />

Karen Hewitt<br />

graduated from the<br />

Ohio State University<br />

receiving her<br />

M.A. in Educational<br />

Administration<br />

on May 4, <strong>2014</strong>.<br />

She is currently<br />

working with Ohio<br />

Girls Basketball<br />

Report as a consultant.<br />

She is also<br />

looking to work in Human Resources or administration<br />

moving forward.<br />

Kourtney Klendworth is on staff with<br />

OceanPointe Christian Church, a brand<br />

new church plant that launched on April 6,<br />

<strong>2014</strong>! She hosted eight visiting churches and<br />

college groups this spring as they came to<br />

serve their brand new church. She’s the tech<br />

producer on Sundays, oversees their missions<br />

and summer intern programs, among<br />

other administrative duties. Kourtney is<br />

currently living in Newport, Rhode Island.<br />

Chris Koenig and his wife Sarah welcomed<br />

their second son, Henry Christopher, on June<br />

12, <strong>2014</strong>. Chris currently works for the Ohio<br />

State University in New Ventures - which<br />

commercialize world-class research through<br />

start-up companies, entrepreneurs, and capital.<br />

They also have 2 year-old son Jack. Both<br />

Chris and Sarah will be busy this summer<br />

running their Ohiolina Music Festival which<br />

celebrates the music and culture of Ohio and<br />

North Carolina. For more info: ohiolina.com<br />

Chad Leland<br />

and his wife, Allison<br />

welcomed<br />

Aurora “Rory”<br />

Jane into their<br />

lives last winter<br />

and she has<br />

changed their<br />

lives in every<br />

way. “Being a<br />

dad is amazing!”<br />

Chad will be starting his 8th season as the<br />

head coach of the <strong>CHCA</strong> middle school<br />

football team this summer. “Coaching,<br />

working and family leave little time for anything<br />

else. But God has blessed us and we<br />

are passionately pursuing Him!”<br />

Michelle Pembaur<br />

is engaged<br />

to be married in<br />

July, <strong>2014</strong> to Michael<br />

Pater. Michael<br />

is one of<br />

eleven children,<br />

so between wedding<br />

planning,<br />

work and family<br />

events, there has<br />

not been much time for anything else. After<br />

their honeymoon in Hawaii, they will be living<br />

in the Kenwood area.<br />

Casey Sutherly<br />

Purnhagen and<br />

her husband, Brad<br />

will celebrate seven<br />

years of marriage<br />

on September 1.<br />

Casey says “I am<br />

awed at how God<br />

has blessed us, as<br />

partners and parents.” She stays very busy<br />

with her most important job- raising two<br />

world-changers. Her son Tommy will be 3<br />

years old in August and her daughter Penny<br />

will be a 1 year old in August. “Parenting<br />

provides me the clearest picture of the perfect<br />

love He has for us, and there’s nothing<br />

like it to teach me how absolutely dependent<br />

I am on Him!”<br />

Shana Stull<br />

got engaged<br />

on November<br />

16, 2013 to Dan<br />

Eling and they<br />

were married<br />

on June 21,<br />

<strong>2014</strong>. They held<br />

their ceremony<br />

at the Chapel at<br />

Crossroads Church in Oakley with a reception<br />

at Maketewah Country Club. Dan is a<br />

doctor of physical therapy, and Shana and<br />

Dan met because Shana had a knee injury<br />

in 2011 and was referred to his clinic. After<br />

knowing each other for about a year and a<br />

half, they started dating, and the rest is history!<br />

“Dan is the most kind, gentle and hilarious<br />

man I’ve ever met, and I can’t wait to<br />

spend the rest of my life with him.”


Resiliently faithful<br />

Class of 2002<br />

Lindsay Adam,<br />

MD completed her<br />

Ophthalmology<br />

Residency at The<br />

Ohio State University<br />

Havener <strong>Eye</strong><br />

Institute in June<br />

<strong>2014</strong>. She will then relocate to Wilmington,<br />

North Carolina to join Coastal Carolina<br />

<strong>Eye</strong> Clinic. Lindsay was diagnosed with<br />

a very serious, rare and often disabling autoimmune<br />

disease her senior year at The<br />

College of William and Mary. Despite years<br />

of active disease and treatment requiring<br />

major medications and IV infusions, she<br />

has persevered through the rigors of medical<br />

school, internships, and her three year<br />

post-graduate residency on schedule and<br />

without special consideration-truly a miracle<br />

for even the most determined. May<br />

God continue to strengthen her to do great<br />

things as she begins her career!<br />

Phil Glotfelty and<br />

Elizabeth Cesler<br />

Glotfelty and their<br />

son Rudy are excited<br />

about the changes in<br />

their lives. Elizabeth<br />

graduated May 17,<br />

<strong>2014</strong> from the University<br />

of Cincinnati<br />

College of Law. She<br />

will be practicing employment and labor<br />

law for a national transportation company<br />

located in Cincinnati. Phil continues to fly<br />

Blackhawk helicopters for the Ohio National<br />

Guard and is the Company Commander<br />

for the 1-137th HHC. Phil is also fixed-wing<br />

flight instructor out of Lunken airport. Rudy<br />

is 4 years old. He loves the Reds and practices<br />

baseball and tennis nonstop.<br />

Valerie Herrmann Galbraith recently made<br />

a big move from Cincinnati to Charlotte,<br />

North Carolina where she currently acts as<br />

the Research Monitor and Educator for the<br />

Carolinas Healthcare System. Valerie and her<br />

husband, Louie with their three pugs moved<br />

into their new Charlotte home this year.<br />

Class of 2003<br />

Jason Bellan<br />

has worked for<br />

Nestle since he<br />

graduated from<br />

Miami University<br />

in 2007. He is<br />

the Key Account<br />

Manager for the Stouffer’s business at<br />

Walmart. He and his wife, Chloe, currently<br />

live in Bentonville, Arkansas.<br />

Katey Dowd<br />

Gonzalez and<br />

her husband,<br />

Rene welcomed<br />

in their<br />

second child,<br />

Sofia Kate on<br />

October 25,<br />

2013. They also have a little boy, Santiago<br />

Rene who is 2 ½ yrs. old. Katie works for<br />

Back2Back Ministries as a graphic designer.<br />

Danny Stull started<br />

an apparel<br />

and gift company<br />

called Be Ohio<br />

Proud<br />

(www.beohioproud.com).<br />

His deep roots and<br />

love for this state<br />

led him to create a<br />

brand that designs<br />

creative yet simple<br />

ways to show<br />

state pride. His products can now be found<br />

in over 60 retail locations around the state.<br />

His company has also expanded into Kentucky<br />

and Michigan under the company<br />

My State Threads (mystatethreads.com). “I<br />

am very thankful for the <strong>CHCA</strong> community<br />

who helped form my love and appreciation<br />

for Ohio. We have something special here.<br />

Truth, loyalty and love are stitched deeply<br />

into the fabric of Ohio. My hope is that<br />

everyone can feel this same sentiment and<br />

want to express it through our gifts and apparel.”<br />

Class of 2004<br />

John Barnhart is working on completing his<br />

PhD at the University of Kentucky by 2015.<br />

He currently has his MBA and Masters of<br />

Economics. He is also a Research Assistant<br />

for the University of Kentucky.<br />

Rachel Shepard<br />

Bowen is currently<br />

a pharmacist<br />

and patient<br />

care manager for<br />

Kroger Pharmacy<br />

here in Cincinnati.<br />

As part of her<br />

job, she acts as<br />

the primary direct patient care preceptor for<br />

one of their pharmacy practice residents,<br />

and is able to serve as an Adjunct Assistant<br />

Professor of Clinical Pharmacy Practice at<br />

the University of Cincinnati. She and her<br />

husband Chad were married in 2011 and<br />

recently welcomed their first child, Ainsley,<br />

on April 8, <strong>2014</strong>. They are enjoying their<br />

new roles as parents and spending time with<br />

Ainsley and their dog, Daphne.<br />

Rachel Chait got engaged to Brian Whims<br />

on December 2013. She and her fiancé, met<br />

during their senior year at Miami University<br />

at a Christmas party hosted by his fraternity.<br />

Rachel was a member of the Christian sorority,<br />

Kappa Phi, and Brian was a member<br />

of their brother fraternity, Sigma Theta Epsilon.<br />

Brian works for Macy’s as a software<br />

developer, and Rachel currently works with<br />

Mercy Health Physicians. Since they met<br />

around Christmas time, they found it fitting<br />

to become man and wife on December 13,<br />

<strong>2014</strong>! They are currently planning their winter<br />

wonderland wedding in Cincinnati with<br />

the ceremony at Tri-County Baptist Church<br />

and the reception to be held at the charming<br />

and historic Glendale Lyceum. They<br />

plan to live in the Cincinnati area after they<br />

are married.<br />

Salen Churi<br />

received his<br />

Juris Doctorate<br />

from the<br />

University Of<br />

Chicago Law<br />

School in 2011.<br />

He is currently<br />

employed with<br />

the University<br />

of Chicago<br />

Law School as<br />

a Lecturer in Law and Assistant Director for<br />

the institute of Justice. Sal is engaged to fiancé,<br />

Jessica Merel and to wed on September<br />

2, <strong>2014</strong> in California.<br />

37


alumni<br />

Class notes<br />

Rachael Herrmann Martinez completed<br />

her PhD last year in Social Psychology from<br />

Loyola University Chicago and continues<br />

in her position as a Social Science Analyst<br />

in health research for the Department of<br />

Veterans Affairs. She and her husband,<br />

Ian, with their 2 mini Huskies, still reside in<br />

Chicago.<br />

RyanAtkins ‘07<br />

’07<br />

38<br />

Class of 2005<br />

Tommy Andrews<br />

on July 1 started<br />

his 5th year<br />

of working for<br />

Speaker of the<br />

House John A.<br />

Boehner (OH-<br />

08) in Washington,<br />

DC. In<br />

October 2013, he<br />

was promoted to<br />

the title of Special Assistant to the Speaker,<br />

serving as the Speaker’s personal aide.<br />

Rebecca Chait<br />

on May 1st, <strong>2014</strong>,<br />

received her doctoral<br />

hood, graduating<br />

with honors<br />

from The Ohio<br />

State University<br />

College of Medicine.<br />

Her dad,<br />

Robert H. Chait<br />

M.D., accompanied<br />

her on stage<br />

to bestow the<br />

doctoral hood.<br />

Becca will continue<br />

her medical training at her two top programs,<br />

The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati for<br />

one year of internal medicine, and The Ohio<br />

State University Wexner Medical Center for<br />

three years of training in ophthalmology. In<br />

January <strong>2014</strong>, Becca traveled to rural Kenya<br />

near the Maasai Mara to serve at two<br />

community health centers. Global missions<br />

have long been a passion of Becca’s and will<br />

be a fundamental component of her career<br />

in ophthalmology. She plans to return<br />

to Kenya as a resident to initiate projects<br />

in community eye health and also hopes<br />

to complete an International Fellowship in<br />

Ophthalmology after her four years of residency<br />

training. Finally, Becca is SO proud of<br />

her little sister Hannah for graduating from<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> this year at the top of her class, and<br />

she would like to congratulate the entire,<br />

very special, Class of <strong>2014</strong> - Work hard and<br />

never give up! God will give you the tools<br />

you need to accomplish His work.<br />

Joseph Polzin finished his second of four<br />

years at Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis,<br />

where he is in the M.Div. program, studying<br />

to be a pastor. He will be spending the <strong>2014</strong>-<br />

2015 on a vicarage assignment at St. Lorenz<br />

Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth, MI. He<br />

and his wife Jennifer are expecting their<br />

second child at the end of June. Their son,<br />

Miles is 2 years old.<br />

Teddy Siegel is employed by Catholic<br />

Health Partners as a Specialist in their Advocacy<br />

and Government Relations department.<br />

She resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.<br />

Lauren Rasmussen Sparks is working fulltime<br />

as a graphic designer and in childcare<br />

at Peoples Church in Clifton. Besides that,<br />

she is also currently illustrating a short story<br />

for Cincinnati company Assailant Comics<br />

which should be published by the end of<br />

<strong>2014</strong> (issue #2 of the series “Open Tree”,<br />

written by Chris Charlton) as well as miscellaneous<br />

album designs and other illustration<br />

work. Lauren and her husband Matt are<br />

both passionate about reducing the amount<br />

of waste in their lives. “We’ve succeeded in<br />

reducing a LOT of waste in our small apartment<br />

by cutting out unneeded packaging,<br />

paper products, cleaning chemicals, appliances<br />

and miscellaneous clutter. My “next<br />

big dream” is to be able to get around with<br />

just public transportation and a fully-electric<br />

car to majorly cut our carbon emissions.<br />

We’re doing our best to follow God’s first<br />

commandment and take care of our Earth.”<br />

Class of 2006<br />

Tyler Anderson and his wife, Abby welcomed<br />

a little girl, Theodora Jane Anderson,<br />

born on April<br />

2, <strong>2014</strong>. Tyler<br />

is a Financial<br />

Planner<br />

and recently<br />

moved to<br />

Omaha, NE<br />

from Chicago,<br />

Illinois.<br />

Alumni spotlight<br />

Ryan Atkins launched FlatOnMyBack.com, a<br />

blog detailing the lessons learned on the road<br />

God has taken him on since a car accident led<br />

to paralysis in 2009. Each Sunday, Ryan also<br />

leads a bible study with a dozen <strong>CHCA</strong> high<br />

school boys, all who met Ryan as freshmen in<br />

2012 at Outback America. At the time, they<br />

were looking for a structured environment to<br />

meet in a small group with their friends. Ryan<br />

provided that and has been meeting with<br />

them as a group and one-on-one ever since.<br />

He shares, “Jesus sets an example of hanging<br />

out with 12 guys for three years as a model<br />

for discipleship and calls all believers to make<br />

disciples in Matthew 28:19. Investing in other<br />

people on a one-on-one basis goes further<br />

than most teachings, sermons, or classes. I<br />

want these guys prepared to step onto a secular<br />

college campus, know the reason for the hope<br />

that they have (1 Peter 3:15), be able to share it<br />

with others, and begin to disciple people in their<br />

dorm and college campus themselves living out<br />

the verse 2 Timothy 2:2-‘what you have heard<br />

from me in the presence of many witnesses<br />

entrust to faithful men who will also be able<br />

to teach others.’” After launching his blog,<br />

Ryan received various invitations to speak at<br />

churches and other events, including chapel at<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> high school in February (pictured above<br />

with sister Laura ‘12). “It may be cool to speak in<br />

front of thousands at a place like Crossroads,”<br />

Ryan shared, “but what I enjoyed most was<br />

returning to the high school in February <strong>2014</strong>,<br />

when I was able to share and interact with<br />

students afterwards. I sat in those same seats<br />

nearly a decade ago and know what it’s like to<br />

be in that environment. I have a passion for<br />

seeing teenagers get serious about their faith.”<br />

He continues to share his message of “Seeking<br />

the Healer, not just the healing”. He is also<br />

currently working on writing a book.


Class of 2007<br />

Bryn Clark married<br />

Mollie Trager<br />

in January <strong>2014</strong> a<br />

fellow Packer fan<br />

and Wheaton College<br />

graduate. The<br />

two of them live<br />

just north of Boston<br />

where they are both<br />

attending graduate<br />

school at Gordon-Conwell Theological<br />

Seminary. They will be spending this summer<br />

in Iceland conducting an internship with a<br />

pastor and church planter in the capitol city<br />

of Reykjavík. If that doesn’t work out, Bryn<br />

would consider studying Cryptozoology.<br />

Epiphany Elease Davis completed her second<br />

contract as a Performer on the Norwegian<br />

Sky Cruise Ship. Since graduating from<br />

NYU Tisch School of Arts in 2010, she has<br />

performed around the world with dance<br />

companies and appeared in many TV and<br />

film projects, most recently Spider-Man and<br />

Girls. She will visit home to relax for a few<br />

weeks in May and head back to New York<br />

City in June to pursue her performing career<br />

as a triple threat dancer, actor and singer.<br />

ter. Amy and Tanner enjoy watching Mary<br />

Evelyn roll over, pick up her toys and stand<br />

(with their help of course!). “I am so blessed<br />

right now to get to stay home with her so<br />

I don’t have to miss a moment.” They are<br />

currently planning to move to join family in<br />

Wilmington, NC and begin civilian life again.<br />

Brian Thomas Hunter is currently an agricultural<br />

Extensionist in the District of<br />

Caazapa, Paraguay. He lives in a small community<br />

of about 140 people and works with<br />

the people of the community. His work<br />

entails projects that help to improve food<br />

security, help to improve the nutrition of<br />

the community and helping to educate the<br />

people of the community how to better improve<br />

the yield from their crops. Tom also<br />

spends a lot of time working with children/<br />

people in their personal gardens teaching<br />

them about different vegetables and how to<br />

prepare them and teaching English to children<br />

in the community. He will be working<br />

and living in the countryside of Paraguay<br />

until his 27 months of service is up in December<br />

of 2015.<br />

Kyle Smith and Rachael Arington Smith<br />

’09 had a son, Roman Gabriel Smith born<br />

on March 14, <strong>2014</strong>. “Roman is a great baby!<br />

He looks just like his daddy. He is very mild<br />

mannered and loves being held. Mommy<br />

and Daddy love spending time with him and<br />

getting to know his unique personality. He<br />

has brought so much joy into our lives in<br />

such a short period of time”.<br />

Resiliently faithful<br />

is currently employed by Key Bank World<br />

Headquarters as a Credit Risk Analyst.<br />

Thomas resides in Strongsville, Ohio.<br />

Ameila Glenchur<br />

is currently working<br />

at Mason Christian<br />

Village as an Activity<br />

Assistant. She thoroughly<br />

enjoys being<br />

around the residents<br />

and coming<br />

up with creative and<br />

interactive type activities.<br />

She recently<br />

started a custom jewelry business called<br />

Mia Ramona Designs.<br />

Class of 2009<br />

Graham Gilmer graduated from University<br />

of Cincinnati on April 16, <strong>2014</strong> with a Bachelor’s<br />

Degree in Urban Planning. He finished<br />

2nd in his class with a 3.752 GPA. He has 2<br />

job offers with which he is currently in negotiations<br />

and hopes to make a selection<br />

very soon. He married Lauren Moushey<br />

from Mason, Ohio on August 9, 2013. She<br />

is a Pharmacy Major at the University of<br />

Cincinnati and expects to graduate in May,<br />

2015. They are currently living in East Walnut<br />

Hills, Ohio.<br />

Paul Tepfenhart, III is working in the Medical<br />

Technology sector marketing biometric<br />

solutions to hospitals throughout the US.<br />

The company he works for is CrossChx. He<br />

resides in Columbus, Ohio.<br />

Class of 2010<br />

Morgan Feeney graduated this year from<br />

Miami University and is seeking a job in<br />

Atlanta. She is interviewing currently with<br />

Teach for America – Atlanta. Teach For<br />

America (TFA) is an American non-profit<br />

organization whose mission is to eliminate<br />

educational inequity by enlisting<br />

high-achieving recent college graduates<br />

and professionals to teach for at least two<br />

years in low-income communities throughout<br />

the United States.<br />

Doyen Harris<br />

graduated<br />

Amy Stevens Hendley and husband, Tanner<br />

are currently living in Virginia Beach, Virginia<br />

from the Citadel<br />

on May<br />

while he finishes up his enlistment as a US<br />

Navy Submariner. Their beautiful daughter,<br />

Matthew Siewny is currently in his third<br />

10, <strong>2014</strong> with<br />

Mary Evelyn Grace was born on October 30,<br />

year of his PhD program at the University of<br />

a Bachelor<br />

2013. She is named after Mary Housh, Amy’s<br />

Colorado. He is loving life in the mountains!<br />

of Science in<br />

best friend of twenty one years whom she<br />

Business Administration<br />

with a concentration in Man-<br />

met in Mrs. Kloster’s first grade class. She Class of 2008<br />

was her co-maid of honor in their wedding Thomas Barnhart received his MBA in Finance<br />

from Xavier University in 2012 and<br />

agement Information.<br />

and is now the Godmother of her daugh- 39


Alumni spotlight<br />

’10<br />

Amanda Mary ’10<br />

After Amanda graduated from <strong>CHCA</strong>, she<br />

went to Evangel University to study elementary<br />

education. She assumed that she<br />

would be living the normal college life for<br />

the next four years: living in the dorms, eating<br />

cafeteria food, going to school, studying<br />

into the late hours of the night, hanging out<br />

with her friends, going to football games,<br />

and finding her husband. But God’s plans<br />

for her were different than that typical four<br />

to five year college experience.<br />

During the second semester of her sophomore<br />

year, the Lord gave her dad a vision of her taking a semester off of school to “Be still and<br />

know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). After praying for six weeks, she made her decision the day<br />

before spring semester started. She would take the semester off. The first part of her dad’s vision<br />

was for her to spend forty days removed from all of society. So for forty days she removed<br />

herself from friends, church, and social media. She would spend her days worshipping God,<br />

reading the Bible, and just being still in His presence. It was the most intimate forty days with<br />

her heavenly Father she had ever experienced. Though some days were tough, she was able<br />

to truly see and experience the Holy Spirit being the best teacher. She was able to experience<br />

God’s peace during stressful times, and a new hunger and passion for her Bible arose. The Holy<br />

Spirit showed her that the Old Testament can still apply to us today, and she became comfortable<br />

with being quiet and still. If there were questions she had either within seconds, minutes,<br />

days, or weeks, the Lord would eventually reveal them to her.<br />

After the forty days, she began to pray about next steps for the fall. Within that week of her<br />

praying, the President of The Agora School for Global Leadership, Randy Young, came to her<br />

church and spoke about his “one-year gap school” with the motto: “The World is Our Campus”.<br />

Feeling a nudge, she spoke with him after church, went home, spoke to her family, and<br />

prayed for confirmation. Within a day, the Lord confirmed it.<br />

Agora is a school for students who want to make a difference in the world while still getting a<br />

college education. The purpose and passion behind Agora is for students to be in the marketplace<br />

day in and day out, while getting a solid education, doing communal living together and<br />

being discipled. She took 15 credits each semester with 12 hours of cross-cultural ministry a<br />

week. The second semester she did the same things, but the last month of school she went on a<br />

one-month mission trip. Last year, in 2013, she went to Thailand and Vietnam. There her group<br />

worked with the nationals, ran kids’ programs, went into the slums of Bangkok and traveled into<br />

the northern villages of Chaing Mai where they worked with a Thai pastor who took the Gospel<br />

to unreached villages. In Vietnam, they worked at a conversational English-speaking coffee<br />

shop where nationals would come and chat for five to six hours a day to practice their English.<br />

In their free time, their new Vietnamese friends would take them all around the city (Karaoke,<br />

the movies, dinner, and so on). They also went to an orphanage where they played with infants<br />

and disabled children.<br />

She was then asked to come back to Agora for a second year as a junior staff member. This<br />

past school year she has done all of the same things as the year before, but this time she helped<br />

lead the outreaches, mentored the new students, was a teacher’s assistant, and was a leader<br />

on their overseas trip. This year her team went to Myanmar. While they were there, they went<br />

to unreached people groups, worked at orphanages, taught conversational English to Burmese<br />

students and were able to establish relationships with young Burmese Buddhists.<br />

“The Lord has done so much changing and shaping in my life, but His plans are always so much<br />

better than mine. I thought I would be graduating this spring from Evangel University, but instead<br />

He has taken me on a journey that is far beyond my wildest dreams.”<br />

This summer she has been asked back on as a part-time staff with Agora. Her job will entail:<br />

administration, recruiting prospective students, and investing in the current students’ lives as<br />

well as promoting Agora at churches/events and going on one mission trip a year. This summer<br />

and next year, her focus will be to finish getting licensed as an Assemblies of God minister,<br />

acquire her TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate, and pray<br />

about going overseas to be an English teacher!<br />

40<br />

Class Notes<br />

Stephanie Harris graduated from Calvin<br />

College in May, <strong>2014</strong> with a double major in<br />

Business Marketing and Sociology. She has<br />

accepted a position as Account Analyst at<br />

Adtegrity, an online marketing firm in Grand<br />

Rapids, Michigan. She continues to be the<br />

Membership chair on the board of the Habitat<br />

Young Professionals for Habitat for Humanity.<br />

Rachel Le-<br />

Compte<br />

and Alec<br />

Swartz ’10<br />

were married<br />

on June<br />

14th, <strong>2014</strong>.<br />

She will be<br />

graduating<br />

from Penn<br />

Foster as a<br />

Veterinary<br />

Technician<br />

in the fall of <strong>2014</strong>. Alec will be graduating<br />

from Mercy Hurst on May 18, <strong>2014</strong> with a<br />

degree in Business. Initially, they will be residing<br />

in Loveland, Ohio.<br />

Erin Lloyd graduated<br />

from Wittenberg<br />

in May. She<br />

has been accepted<br />

to and will be attending<br />

Medical<br />

School at Oakland<br />

University, beginning<br />

in the Fall<br />

of <strong>2014</strong>. While at<br />

Wittenberg, she<br />

played two years of<br />

basketball, was VP<br />

of her sorority, and<br />

was named to the<br />

Dean’s List every<br />

semester.


Resiliently faithful<br />

John Lloyd<br />

graduated in<br />

April <strong>2014</strong> from<br />

UC. He is now<br />

attending graduate<br />

school and<br />

will be playing<br />

football again<br />

for the University<br />

of Cincinnati<br />

in <strong>2014</strong>. John<br />

Led the American<br />

Athletic<br />

Conference in<br />

punting in 2013 with a 44 yards per punt average.<br />

He has also been named to the Big<br />

East and American Athletic Conference All<br />

Academic Teams the past 3 years.<br />

Mallory O’Connor graduated from The<br />

Ohio State University in May, <strong>2014</strong> with a<br />

Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences.<br />

She will continue at The Ohio State<br />

University pursuing her Doctorate of Pharmacy.<br />

Andrew Philip graduated from The Ohio<br />

State University in May, <strong>2014</strong> with a Bachelor<br />

of Science degree in Zoology and Ethnic<br />

Studies. He will be continuing his involvement<br />

with his campus fellowship at OSU,<br />

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, for the<br />

year of <strong>2014</strong>-2015 as a campus minister.<br />

Specifically, he will be working with South<br />

Asian and Asian American students, continuing<br />

to plant a new ministry reaching<br />

South Asian Christians, Hindus, Muslims,<br />

and others. After his internship with Inter-<br />

Varsity, Andrew will be attending The Ohio<br />

State University’s College of Medicine to<br />

pursue an MD.<br />

Chris Taylor graduated from Duke University<br />

this May, <strong>2014</strong> with a double Major in<br />

Economics and Public Policy and a Minor in<br />

Political Science. Chris will begin a job with<br />

PricewaterhouseCoopers in Washington,<br />

DC. He was recently became engaged to<br />

Andria Merkel ’10 who also graduated this<br />

May from the University of North Carolina<br />

with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration<br />

with a concentration in Mar-<br />

keting and Operations. She will be working<br />

for Kraft Foods in Tampa, FL.<br />

Andrew Wallace graduated in May, <strong>2014</strong><br />

from Butler University with a Bachelor degree<br />

in Accounting. He will be pursuing a<br />

Masters in Accounting at Butler University<br />

in the Fall. Andrew completed his four years<br />

of running track at Butler University by being<br />

named All Big East 1st team and Big East<br />

Academic Team. He also was team captain<br />

for his sophomore through senior year.( pic)<br />

Matt Williams graduated from the University<br />

of Cincinnati in April, <strong>2014</strong> He played his<br />

200th game for The University of Cincinnati<br />

Bearcats Baseball program on May 4 against<br />

West Point. He is just the 11th player in UC<br />

Baseball history to do so. During his senior<br />

year as a Bearcat, he tied a career high with<br />

four hits against Temple (4/4), collected<br />

two hits and scored one run versus UCF, led<br />

the team with four hits, three RBIs and two<br />

runs scored in a win over Youngstown State,<br />

knocked 11 hits in a span of four games had<br />

four hits in a win over Wake Forest with one<br />

double and a run scored and scored two<br />

runs in the season opener against Elon. Matt<br />

completed a total of 211 games and earned<br />

All-Conference honors for the American<br />

Athletic Conference!<br />

Kristen Zabbatino<br />

began<br />

her freshmen<br />

theater experience<br />

at<br />

Mount St. Joseph<br />

College<br />

as the Wicked<br />

Witch of<br />

the West and<br />

is ending her<br />

senior year at<br />

the Mount performing Alice from Alice in<br />

Wonderland! She graduated with honors<br />

from Mount St. Joseph in May <strong>2014</strong>. She has<br />

started her graduate studies toward a Master’s<br />

Degree in Nursing.<br />

Class of 2011<br />

Meredith Allgood completed her junior<br />

year at Wake Forest University in the Honors<br />

Psychology program, and will be spending<br />

her summer studying in Europe and beginning<br />

her Honors research in Stress and<br />

Resilience before beginning her senior year.<br />

She is a Research Assistant to Dr. Christian<br />

Waugh, a member of the Psi Chi National<br />

Honor Society in Psychology and the Phi<br />

Eta Sigma National Honor Society, and<br />

serves with Wake Forest’s service outreach<br />

program.<br />

Abby Brown is coming into her senior year<br />

at Ohio Northern University, with a major<br />

in Advertising Design and a minor in Marketing.<br />

She currently serves as president<br />

of Kappa Pi and as vice president of Ohio<br />

Northern’s AIGA chapter. She also works<br />

as the Art & Design Editor for Polaris, a student-run<br />

undergraduate journal of art and<br />

literature. Abby plans on studying abroad<br />

this summer in Florence, Italy. Her design<br />

work, photography, and illustrations are<br />

available at abbyvbrown.wix.com/abbybrowndesign.<br />

Madeline Drees just<br />

completed her junior<br />

year at Kent State<br />

University as a BFA<br />

Musical Theatre<br />

major. She recently<br />

starred as Elizabeth<br />

Bennet in Pride and<br />

Prejudice, for which<br />

she won the Leading<br />

Actress award and<br />

the <strong>2014</strong> Outstanding<br />

Performer award<br />

at the Kent State<br />

School of Theatre<br />

and Dance’s annual<br />

banquet. She was also the recipient of the<br />

Cynthia Stillings Scholarship (Department<br />

of the School of Theatre and Dance Award/<br />

Scholarship). Next year, Maddie will serve<br />

as Vice President for both Alpha Psi Omega,<br />

an honorary theatre fraternity, and to the<br />

School of Theatre and Dance’s student organization,<br />

Roundtable.<br />

41


alumni<br />

Class notes<br />

Amy Mirlisena<br />

is working<br />

with Teach for<br />

America and<br />

very active<br />

in education<br />

field work in<br />

the greater<br />

Cincinnati<br />

area. Recently,<br />

she was cast in<br />

the Miami University fashion week to model<br />

for the brand new Fashion Design Majors<br />

this spring. Former <strong>CHCA</strong> student Michaela<br />

Owen ‘12, is a designer for the show - two<br />

different <strong>CHCA</strong> alumni on both ends of the<br />

Miami Fashion Show this year! This fall Amy<br />

will also be playing a featured role with the<br />

Miami University Drama Workshop in “One<br />

Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”. The production<br />

will take place during the first few<br />

weeks of November in Cheviot, Ohio<br />

Andrew Paroz completed his Junior year<br />

at The Ohio State University. He will be<br />

interning at the Ford Motor Company in<br />

Dearborn, Michigan this summer in Supply<br />

Chain Management.<br />

Brad Tepfenhart completed his Junior year<br />

at Miami University. He is pursuing a degree<br />

in Mechanical Engineering and will have<br />

a summer internship working for HEB as a<br />

Process Engineering Intern in San Antonio,<br />

Texas.<br />

Sidney Zimmerman graduated from Liberty<br />

University in July, <strong>2014</strong>. Sidney will be<br />

getting married to her fiancé, George Dirling<br />

on November 1, <strong>2014</strong>. They will be moving to<br />

Florida after the wedding.<br />

Class of 2012<br />

Amanda Barry spent her first semester of<br />

college in Ireland and will be graduating with<br />

her four year degree in Communication<br />

from the Indiana University-East in only two<br />

years. She will be graduating in December,<br />

<strong>2014</strong> and then plans to pursue a Masters degree<br />

in the spring of 2015.<br />

AnnMarie Kadnar completed her Sophomore<br />

year at the University of Kentucky<br />

pursuing a degree in Equine Science. She is<br />

also a member of the UK Equestrian Team<br />

and competes throughout the year.<br />

Tanner Kuremsky will spend this summer<br />

before the start of his Junior year at Virginia<br />

Tech University working as a Chemical Engineering<br />

Intern for P & G in Cincinnati. His<br />

work will be in Research and Development<br />

within the Personal Care Division supporting<br />

brands like Old Spice and Secret.<br />

Tyler Tepfenhart completed his Sophomore<br />

year at Baylor University where he is<br />

pursuing a degree in Molecular Biology. He<br />

plays lacrosse for the university and joined<br />

the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.<br />

Josh Thiel was<br />

recently honored<br />

by the Robert<br />

Morris University<br />

School of Business<br />

as recipient<br />

of the Dean’s<br />

Scholar Award.<br />

The honor recognizes<br />

students<br />

with superior cumulative<br />

grade<br />

point averages for at least three consecutive<br />

terms. Josh has been named to the School<br />

of Business Dean’s List for each of his four<br />

semesters as a Marketing Major at RMU.<br />

Josh is a member of the Colonial’s football<br />

team, where he has moved from the Left<br />

Tackle position he anchored at <strong>CHCA</strong> to<br />

win a spot on the offensive line’s first team<br />

as Right Guard. He has been honored all<br />

four semesters as a member of the Northeast<br />

Conference Commissioner’s Academic<br />

Honor Roll. Josh represents RMU’s 550<br />

Division-I athletes as Vice President of the<br />

Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and<br />

is one of ten students in the Class of 2016<br />

that have been selected for the Colonial<br />

Leadership Academy—a three-year leadership<br />

development program. Josh remains<br />

active in the Pittsburgh community as an<br />

outreach leader for the Children’s Hospital<br />

Pediatric Cancer Center, Coraopolis Community<br />

Foundation, and Best Buddies. He<br />

is working in Pittsburgh this summer as a<br />

marketing research intern with Manchester<br />

Bidwell Corp. and the National Center for<br />

Arts and Technology.<br />

Eli Vizcaino completed his junior year at St.<br />

Edwards University in the Honors Program<br />

while pursuing a Bachelors in Business Administration<br />

and has recently decided to<br />

also get a Bachelors in an Economics. Last<br />

summer he interned at Aerospace Industries<br />

Association and this summer he will<br />

be taking summer classes at the College of<br />

Mount St. Joseph while working in the Cincinnati<br />

Area. While at St. Edwards University<br />

he has been active in the development<br />

of the St. Edwards University TV channel,<br />

Topper TV, and has been active in the Delta<br />

Sigma Pi Fraternity. He is looking forward<br />

to completing his education at St. Edwards<br />

University and for what the future holds.<br />

Class of 2013<br />

Abby Bowman just finished her freshman<br />

year at Wheaton College and loves everything<br />

that college has to offer. This year,<br />

she joined the Wheaton Improv Team, and<br />

also developed a new hobby for exploring<br />

Chicago and navigating the train systems.<br />

In April, she ran the Nashville Rock N’ Roll<br />

Marathon, which was her first marathon<br />

ever! This summer, she will be studying<br />

abroad with Wheaton in London, England,<br />

and will also be returning to Hyderabad, India<br />

with Back2Back Ministries to continue<br />

short term mission work there. In the fall,<br />

she is planning to declare a double major,<br />

studying Spanish and Anthropology.<br />

42


Resiliently faithful<br />

Wes Braden<br />

is backpacking<br />

throughout<br />

Europe this<br />

summer for<br />

10 weeks. He<br />

will be traveling<br />

to the<br />

Netherlands,<br />

Switzerland,<br />

Austria, Croatia,<br />

Hungary, Germany and the Czech Republic.<br />

Wes completed his Freshman year at<br />

Wheaton College and is pursuing a degree<br />

in International Relations/Business.<br />

Jonathan Churi completed his freshman<br />

year at Arizona State University pursuing<br />

a degree in Business. He plans to travel to<br />

Israel this summer.<br />

Natalie LeCompte received a 4.0 at Miami<br />

University this year. She also accepted an<br />

Art Scholarship/Award through the Miami<br />

University Art Department. She was nominated<br />

by one of her current Art professors.<br />

Kaity Venters enjoyed<br />

her first year<br />

as a freshman at<br />

Saint Mary’s College.<br />

One the many<br />

highlights was playing<br />

college tennis.<br />

She is pursuing a<br />

degree in Global<br />

Studies.<br />

YiLi host daughter of the Hilderbrand family<br />

for three 3 years, was selected from the<br />

top 5% of her class at MSU to be a member<br />

of the MSU Beaumont Tower Guard, a very<br />

select sophomore honorary that helps special<br />

needs students at MSU succeed. The<br />

Hilderbrands surprised her the morning of<br />

her initiation (6:00 a.m.) as is the tradition<br />

of all of the new members’ parents. When<br />

YiLi checked in that morning she was told,<br />

‘your parents are out of the country and<br />

your “other” parents are out of state so<br />

no one will probably be here.’ Hilderbrand<br />

shared, “One of the best moments EVER of<br />

having YiLi in our lives was seeing the look<br />

on her face when she saw us walking toward<br />

her through the crowd of other students<br />

and parents. She and my wife hugged (and<br />

cried) for the longest time!” What a great<br />

memory and congrats to YiLi for finishing<br />

her freshmen year in the top 5% of her class<br />

and being accepted into the MSU Beaumont<br />

Tower Guard.<br />

<strong>2014</strong>-2015<br />

Alumni Events Schedule<br />

August 9, <strong>2014</strong><br />

Alumni Soccer Game<br />

*October 3, <strong>2014</strong><br />

Homecoming Extravaganza and<br />

25th Anniversary Celebration<br />

Weekend<br />

3:00 pm<br />

Homecoming Football Game<br />

7:30 pm<br />

October 10 - 12, <strong>2014</strong><br />

MSL High School Play,<br />

“Little Shop of Horrors”<br />

November 28, <strong>2014</strong><br />

Class of 2004<br />

10 Year Reunion<br />

January 7, 2015<br />

MSL HS Alumni Chapel<br />

10:00 am<br />

February 7, 2015<br />

Celebration Dinner & Auction<br />

March <strong>2014</strong> TBD<br />

College 101 Panel Discussion<br />

with Class of 2015<br />

*March 6 – 8, 2015<br />

MSL HS Musical,<br />

“West Side Story”<br />

April 11, 2015<br />

ArtBeat Fine Arts<br />

Festival<br />

April 17 - 18, 2015<br />

MSL HS Theatre<br />

“Academy Night Live”<br />

Check the www.chca-oh.org/alumni website for updates for additional alumni events throughout the year<br />

*These events feature special alumni-only discounts or freebies. Contact Alumni Coordinator, Julie Carnes via email at julie.carnes@chca-oh.org to learn more.<br />

43


44<br />

Resiliently faithful<br />

by Liz Bronson Rosenau ‘00<br />

Q&A<br />

with Liz (Bell) Young ’95<br />

Liz (Bell) Young (pictured above) graduated with <strong>CHCA</strong>’s first<br />

class in 1995, attended Furman University in South Carolina,<br />

Lee University, then back home to Xavier—and eventually<br />

went on to get her master’s degree in creative writing from The<br />

School of the Art Institute of Chicago and UC. Along the way,<br />

she fell in love with Ryan Young—an ROTC cadet at Furman<br />

who’d actually grown up in the same church as Liz—and later<br />

asked Liz to marry him and journey to Italy for his first, four-year<br />

military assignment.<br />

Between raising two sons (Moses, 5, and Tommy, 3) with<br />

Ryan, working part time as a writer and creative at Crossroads<br />

Church, serving as half of Haven (a bakery and studio run out<br />

of her home) and doing the occasional freelance writing job, Liz<br />

somehow found time to write a memoir. Her book, In the Wide<br />

Country of Love, is a story about her young marriage in another<br />

country, grieving through a war-time separation, and finding<br />

what it means to be home.<br />

Being a writer myself (and having loved In the<br />

Wide Country of Love), I couldn’t pass up a<br />

chance to interview Liz for Eagle’s <strong>Eye</strong>.<br />

First, I have to ask: why a bakery?<br />

I started Haven with my friend Becky Norris—<br />

Becky’s an incredible pastry chef. She was looking<br />

for a place to bake; I offered our kitchen.<br />

We’re both entrepreneurs with a similar design<br />

taste, so it felt energizing to join forces. It’s<br />

turned into a wedding cake dreamland (happy<br />

and chaotic), and together we do styling for<br />

magazine and video shoots.<br />

When did you discover your<br />

love for writing?<br />

When I was about seven, my mom created a<br />

box. Inside were scraps of paper with creative<br />

prompts, things like “Draw your favorite room in<br />

the house” and “Write a story about a girl who<br />

gets surprised.” My mom’s an artist and teacher;<br />

she has a keen way of pulling creativity out of<br />

people. I loved this box—it was all I wanted to<br />

do for the summer. I was fairly reserved as a<br />

child, so this box was a powerful way for me to<br />

express myself and stir up imagination.<br />

My <strong>CHCA</strong> English teacher, Karen Smeltzer,<br />

was fantastic, too. She played a big part in me<br />

choosing writing as a profession. The way she<br />

approached literature was smart and creative<br />

all at once, and that’s what I was craving. She<br />

kept asking for more from me, challenging me.<br />

It was daunting and I loved it.<br />

What inspired you to write<br />

your memoir, In the Wide Country<br />

of Love?<br />

I felt unmoored. Ryan had just been deployed<br />

by the Army for a one-and-a-half year assignment<br />

to the Middle East, and I was lost in the<br />

grief and confusion of it. At that point, I was in a<br />

writing program at the University of Cincinnati,<br />

so the book started as a collection of stories for<br />

my thesis. And my professors were incredible.<br />

They understood that me writing about that<br />

present-day experience was almost a necessity.<br />

It gave me an anchor.<br />

What was it like to write a book?<br />

At first, it was fast, and came out raw and<br />

unhinged. When I finished that first draft, my<br />

professors saw promise in that mosaic of stories<br />

and encouraged me to find an agent. I had<br />

no idea how much work it would take to get<br />

it from that hodgepodge of stories to bookready—there<br />

were a few years when I had an<br />

agent, spent time connecting with publishers,<br />

worked with an editor. It was exciting and<br />

exhausting at the same time. I loved it, but<br />

realized going through that process means you<br />

often are asked to make compromises and it<br />

can take years to find the right way to tell a


story. For example, my agent wanted my book to be<br />

more emotive and commercial—like Eat, Pray, Love,<br />

which was really big at the time—so I tried to take it in<br />

that direction and didn’t like it at all. That just wasn’t<br />

the style or format I was going for. We parted on good<br />

terms and I shelved the book for about a year and a<br />

half. Finally, about a year ago, I pulled it back out. I gave<br />

myself the freedom to reshape it, with no pressure of<br />

impressing an audience. I finally felt like I found my<br />

footing, so I went the self-publishing route to have the<br />

most creative control, and invested in a short run of<br />

printed books. I’m still kind of shocked it’s out there.<br />

You were pretty vulnerable in this book.<br />

How difficult was that?<br />

I initially didn’t write it with publication in mind—I<br />

wrote it with a thesis in mind, so in my head, the general<br />

public was never going to see it. I’m not someone<br />

who goes around talking a lot about who I am and what<br />

I feel. Honestly, I’m still a little surprised that I wrote<br />

some of it. And there were times when I erased whole<br />

blocks of text. One thing I learned about memoir in<br />

grad school is that it’s not a journal—you direct it at<br />

something, or else it loses the power of story. I skipped<br />

whole sections of our lives because some experiences<br />

weren’t right for this memoir.<br />

I’m also surrounded by people who constantly model<br />

vulnerability for me, so that had an enormous influence.<br />

And I prayed that God would push it in the right<br />

direction, and into the right hands.<br />

How involved was Ryan?<br />

He was a backseat encourager, and it turns out that’s<br />

exactly what I needed from him. He’s always believed<br />

in me as a writer, but this book brought out a new level<br />

of support.<br />

What do you want people to take<br />

away from this book?<br />

The best books I’ve read are the ones that have made<br />

me feel understood—maybe they’re conflicted in the<br />

same way as me, they love in the same way as me, or<br />

they share a similar experience—that’s the kind of<br />

book I wanted to write. I want it to feel like a gift, and<br />

feel like comfort.<br />

What advice would you give to any<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong> students or alumni who think<br />

they want to be a writer?<br />

I think if it’s a driving force in you, you’ll find your way.<br />

You’ll read and write as if it’s instinct. You’ll take any<br />

writing assignment you can get, no matter how trivial.<br />

You’ll find writing workshops, study sound, follow the<br />

best writers and learn from a place of humility. I’ve also<br />

noticed that the writers I’m drawn to are the ones who<br />

really live in the present—they don’t stay holed up in<br />

a cabin in the woods. They study science, social work<br />

and their neighborhoods. They have children. They<br />

write at night or before everyone else wakes up.<br />

What was it like to be at <strong>CHCA</strong><br />

from day one?<br />

It was exciting for my family to rally around something.<br />

I remember once when I looked out the classroom<br />

window, and my dad was out lining the soccer field—in<br />

the middle of his work day. My parents sacrificed a lot<br />

to help establish the school and get us there, and my<br />

sister and I felt deep gratitude. It was also fun that it<br />

was brand new—we could sense that we were part of<br />

something big and exciting.<br />

What’s next on the horizon?<br />

I’m trying to take it day-by-day, because I have the<br />

tendency to scurry in many directions. But a publisher<br />

read my memoir and contracted me to write a book<br />

of fiction, so that’s my current book project and I love<br />

getting to do it. I’m also starting a magazine that I’m<br />

wildly excited about, and I leave for India this month<br />

to get that off the ground. We’re also having another<br />

baby this winter—so that’s easily the best part of the<br />

horizon.<br />

Interested in reading Liz’s book? Buy a print or digital copy of<br />

In the Wide Country of Love at www.lizbellyoung.com.<br />

Liz (Bell) Young’s<br />

book, In the Wide<br />

Country of Love,<br />

is a story about her<br />

young marriage in<br />

another country,<br />

grieving through a<br />

war-time separation,<br />

and finding what it<br />

means to be home.<br />

45


25<br />

years<br />

...a light to the world<br />

Matthew 5:16<br />

11525 Snider Road<br />

Cincinnati, Ohio 45249<br />

Please save the date!<br />

<strong>CHCA</strong>’s Homecoming Extravaganza and<br />

25th Anniversary Celebration will be held on<br />

October 3rd at the Martha S. Lindner High<br />

School starting at 3:00 p.m.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!