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International Students from European countries

     “My high school experience at Christian Academy of Western New York started on September 5, 2014, hosted by the school during my exchange year program in the United States.  I did not expect to end up here.  I had a completely different perspective from my study abroad program, but I had the best, unexpected experience from it.  I have never spent time thinking about how high school experience affected me as a person, but now, at the end of my last year of high school, I constantly stop and think how this impacted me:  CAWNY has had me as a student and now I have CAWNY in me.

     “Waking up in the morning and getting ready to leave for school is less difficult when you know and you enjoy the place where are you going to.  Attending CAWNY makes me feel in this way, as I am part of a big family.

     “Attending CAWNY, I have [learned] that I will never stop learning from others; everyone has a different background and story.  Getting closer with so many people from different nationalities and cultures opened my eyes to the world.

     “Having to deal alone with real life problems during my study abroad experience in Western New York helped me to grow a lot; becoming an international student is beyond doubt the most dynamic experience that anyone can ever take, and I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to spend it in a school environment as CAWNY, lead here by God.

     "Although faith is something that comes from the deepest of our heart and cannot be taught by anyone else but ourselves, attending a Christian academy gave me a strong Christian basis, more than the other twelve years of education did.  During my senior year, I grew a lot inside of me, spiritually and emotionally, finding answers and comfort by the Word of God.

     "The best moments I spent at CAWNY were during Chapel.  I took a lot from it, that weekly hour spent every Wednesday morning with the rest of the high school with different speakers and different stories.  God pulled different messages into my heart from which I take inspiration every day.  Spirituality from different points of view touches everyone; that is a great thing that enriched me throughout my Senior Year.  Going to school increased not only knowledge in school subjects, but also my way of seeing life from a Christian perspective.  This gets me ready to be a valuable and spiritually rich member of the society and I am sure that being educated from a Christian school will help me to [make] wiser decisions and well thought out [choices] in life.

     "The best experience that sums up my personal and spiritual growth during my Senior Year at CAWNY was the volunteer experience in Niagara Falls with Mrs. Plyler and my Senior English class.  We were able to apply what we had read in the book, Homeless at Harvard, coming in contact with the homeless community.  But the best part of it was the moment of sharing with the homeless people that I had the privilege to eat dinner with that night and talking to them.  That was a perfect occasion when I could experience the transition between the life in school and the outside world; talking to someone who lived in brokenness and still had faith in God, fortifies me in facing real world problems.” 

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     “Throughout this year at CAWNY, I have grown not only academically, but also spiritually.  I learned to speak a language that was completely foreign to me.  Interacting with people from other countries and with different cultures taught me a lot…  I tried things I never thought I would.  I learned basics in a lot of languages and I made real friendships.  I learned to be open-minded, resolved and determined.  This year made me think about religion and what God means to me.  These are questions I had never thought about.  I wasn’t the Christian-like kind of thing.  But attending to CAWNY made me be involved.  Now that I know more about the topic I can say that I grew spiritually, that with God by my side anything is possible and that really encourages me.

     “The most valuable experience that I had during my year at Christian Academy was during camp.  The good thing about studying in a small school is that you get to know everyone in a deeper way.  Camp brought us all together, we learned more about each other and about God and we did it in a really fun way.  During the campfire, the speaker…really made sense to me and that was when I first started listening to the Word of God.

     “Leaving Christian education behind means to fall into the unknown.  Right now, I feel joy, but also I feel scared, mostly from not knowing what to expect and also knowing how critical college is.  I will miss the daily Bible teaching, the everyday open prayer, the Biblical worldview throughout each subject, and the smaller environment, a big family.  Leaving Christian high school behind doesn’t mean to stop believing in God, it just means making the effort of having a relationship with Him without having someone to tell you to do it.”

 

 

International Student from an African country

     "I will always try to work on becoming a master of academic achievements, personal growth and Christ-like behavior.  It has always been my desire to be an example to others and to show Christ-like mind and attitude.

     "I strongly feel that my sprituality has amazingly developed since I started attending Christian Academy of Western New York.  Going to Bible class and socializing and being surrounded by Christian students and people has greatly challenged me to grow more.  I feel I am at a very new and different spiritual level that will continue to grow as I leave Christian school behind." 

 

 

International Student from a Central American country

     “As I leave the Christian Academy, I see that this is going to be the hardest part.  Now going into a non-spiritual setting is going to be challenging.  This will really test my faith.  But, I feel like this will be God’s test for me and the Christian Academy has prepared me for that test.

     “The Christian Academy has changed my life definitely for the better.  This school has given my faith depth and will help me prepare for my walk with God.  Although it was hard for me to leave home and all friends and family, I’m glad I did.  I will now be able to look at my future with my mind clear knowing God and my newfound skills will help me through.”

 

 

International Students from Asian countries

     “There is…big difference in high school between [home country] and America.  We must do twenty-five hours per year [of] Community Service.  This year, I went to rescue mission to serve food, did some garden planning, helped church and write cards for Senior Center.  I enjoyed doing this a lot.  Wherever I go after high school, I will not give up each opportunity of doing community service to bring convenience to people.  Instead of payment, I received people’s [respect] and grateful words.

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     "[Christian Academy of Western New York] is not a big school, but it is warm and cozy, like a real home.  Even though there isn't a large number of students, they are from various countries:  China, [South] Korea, Mexico, Italy, Germany....  Therefore, students in our school could share different culture backgrounds with others.  At this small school, I learned more than what I could learn from a big school.  I can sit down with my teachers, asking questions that I don't understand but very important to an international student with language barrier like me.  I strongly believe that an individual education does make a difference and the way that Christian Academy has educated me made that difference.  I learned from each teacher their passion in teaching and loving God.

     "At this point, I can say that I understand growing up is not just going off to college or getting a job to support myself, Christian Academy has taught me that growing up is a process of growing academically, socially, spiritually and emotionally."