COMING TOGETHERcali bryan

The Prefect system at KRCS is a leadership program comprised of student leaders from the senior class (selected during their junior year) who are highly committed to the School’s mission and values. Their influence within the school community is based on their character and is demonstrated through servant leadership at KRCS.

This past July, the eight selected Prefects for the 2022-2023 school year traveled to Eswatini, Africa, to serve at Heart for Africa, a faith-based humanitarian organization and long-standing partner and friend of KRCS. This trip challenged the rising seniors to grow as leaders, depend upon others as a team, and strengthen their faith in the Lord. Publicity Prefect Cali Bryan shares her thoughts on this life-changing opportunity.

I remember being surrounded by my best friends as we sat in community time last February. We shared glances and felt nervous excitement as we listened to administrators and the Class of 2022 Prefects share their stories and talk about the upcoming application and interview process.

The whole thing sounded intimidating - answering essay questions, being interviewed by a panel of teachers, administrators, and Prefects, and waiting several weeks before receiving the final decisions. But the allure of having the chance to be a leader and make a difference in the KRCS community trumped these initial uncertainties.

Before I knew it, I had turned in the application and was being questioned by the interview panel. This was easily the most nerve-wracking part of the whole process, though I was determined to be true to myself and show the committee who I was and what I wanted to accomplish.

A couple of months later, just before spring break, the eight finalists were announced during a weekly High School chapel, offering relief and happiness that I had been chosen to serve but also a reminder that this was just the beginning of the journey.

I couldn’t wait to start serving the school, but that morning Dr. Spurka surprised us by telling us that this year’s Prefect trip would be a mission to the African kingdom of Eswatini. While I was thrilled by the magnitude of the news and the feeling that this would be a life-changing trip, I was also anxious to go all the way around the world to serve.

Although I was friends with most of the Prefects and enjoyed all their company, I didn’t know them very well. On the seventeen-hour flight to Johannesburg, we all sat with each other, and though we were still unsure of just how exactly we would work together, we couldn’t wait to see what the week ahead would offer us.

As the trip progressed, we began building relationships with each other, our teachers, and the amazing kids we met in Africa. With the Prefects, we moved from only having surfacelevel conversations to staying up until three in the morning, talking and sharing things about our lives with one another. It was incrediblethis group I had barely known a week earlier had become some of my closest and most trusted friends.

When Dr. Spurka first told us we were going to Africa, I did not truly comprehend why we had to go there. Looking back now, I would never have been able to predict the impact the trip would have on the King’s Ridge community as a whole or me and my own life.

We got to experience an entirely different culture filled with loving people, and we were determined to bring what we had learned back to King’s Ridge. After the week spent in Africa, we knew this was not just a one-time trip. We had seen how God worked in Eswatini and met the future generation of Swazi leaders. We knew that we had to continue to work with Heart for Africa because of their daily impact on their community. Little did we know that their effect on King’s Ridge Christian School would extend beyond just those of us who had the opportunity to go on the trip.

In October, five of the oldest and most extraordinary children from Heart for Africa’s Project Canaan were given the opportunity to come to America and visit our school. Suddenly, an organization that King’s Ridge has been partnering with did not seem so distant anymore. It was very impactful for everyone around the community to see, just as we did, how God is at work in Africa and how much of an impact they have made and will continue to make across the entire world.

Traveling to Africa touched those on the Prefect trip and has also inspired our whole King’s Ridge community to be more involved with this world-changing organization. I am incredibly grateful for the chance to serve as a leader at our school with amazing people. I cannot wait to see what this community will continue to accomplish at our school and around the world.