Under ONE ROOF

BY MRS. AMBER IRIZARRY, COMMUNICATIONS CONTENT MANAGER

Mount Paran Christian School is known for our strong sense of community. With a wide range of ages all on one campus, we make the most of opportunities for cross-collaboration. The benefits of a preschool through grade 12 campus are mentoring, enhanced learning opportunities, and camaraderie. There is a sense of kindness, encouragement, and knowledge sharing.

At MPCS, cross-divisional programs include mentoring opportunities, such as 11:1 Effect, whereby high school students mentor lower school students; Book Buddies, where older students within the lower school read to younger students; and athletics programs such as the girls lacrosse “Big Sisters” program, through which varsity players mentor middle school team members.

Alumni parent Holly Akins says, “As lower and middle school students, our kids looked up to the high school athletes, artists, and performers. As high school students, our kids have enjoyed giving back by serving as role models through their sports, as well as serving as mentors to the younger kids on campus.”

ONE LARGE PK-12 COMMUNITY EASES SCHOOL TRANSITIONS BETWEEN DIVISION LEVELS

Beyond mentoring opportunities, learning connections abound. For instance, high school Spanish students visit lower school Spanish classes for a unit on animals and Noah’s Ark. Students in grades 6-8 gather as teammates for the Black History Bowl competition. And, one of the most innovative means of community building across grades is the House system, through which all middle school students are sorted into Houses, where they and worship, compete, and bond together during the middle school years.

O ffering one large PK-12 community eases school transitions between division levels, alleviating student anxiety. It “feels” like the same school to students as they move from lower to middle school and from middle to high school. Faculty get to know each student and his or her individual needs long before arriving in their classrooms.

For Stephanie Dunn, director of admission at MPCS, the impact long-term families make on a school's culture is powerful. She says, "It is so rewarding to walk the halls with prospective families and share the traditions and, more so, the loyalty and commitment of our families. It speaks volumes about how much the Christian culture, the academics, and, most of all, the family environment is truly lived-out in the classroom, on the playing fields, at the churches, and in one another's homes. The families at MPCS choose to return year after year because they feel their worth here in so many areas." And for our "lifers," the family of faith they have experienced since kindergarten will be the community of which they will always be a part. W