I have always been enrolled in an Adventist school since I was five years old. My parents left everything they have ever known like family, friends, and their home to give my siblings and I a better life and a better education—an Adventist education. I would have never guessed how important an Adventist education would be in my life today. 

I attended Vista Ridge Academy in Erie, Colorado when I was five years old and I graduated my 8th grade year. When I first entered Vista Ridge I didn’t know English. My teacher Ms. Blankenship was bilingual and she helped me understand so much by pushing me to learn.

She would even teach the kids in my class Spanish so they understood how hard it was to learn a new language, and I wouldn’t feel alone.

The staff at Vista Ridge were all amazing and patient with me after having to explain what they were teaching me over and over again until I would understand. I am forever grateful for all the staff at Vista Ridge Academy. 

I started attending Campion Academy in August 2021. I was nervous because it would be my first time being in a new school and not knowing anybody, besides my friend Jasmine. Campion has a lot of activities for classes to bond and I started to become friends with my whole class. At the beginning of Sophomore year, I wanted to leave Campion because I had just lost my friend due to gang violence; he was unfortunately caught in the middle of senselessness.

I prayed to God to give me strength and to show me that Campion was the place for me.

The next day my friends and I talked about the annual Biology Moab trip, what our Senior year would be like, and the memories that we would make along the way. That’s when I realized God wanted me to stay put. 

Back in my neighborhood it isn’t known to be the safest place. It deals with rival gangs and drugs. I had friends in my neighborhood that I had known since we were kids. I was with a friend and her mom who didn’t know I lived in this neighborhood. We heard police sirens heading towards my neighborhood. Her mom said,

Those kids in that neighborhood would never be anything, just doing drugs and entering gangs.

My friends in my neighborhood started to enter separate gangs, and hatred overcame them because of who they were associated with. I made a hard decision to leave my friends and focus my life on a spiritual walk with God. 

I am now a month into my Senior year at Campion Academy.

The growth of my spiritual life has been immense.

All the staff here at Campion have impacted and changed my life. Having the Campion Seventh-day Adventist Church next door has helped a lot as well. I love how church members and the pastors get involved to help students feel more welcomed and involved. I have learned that no matter where you come from or what your background is, you are accepted and chosen to be a child of God. 

Proverbs 3:6 (ESV) goes,

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

All my teachers have helped me understand God’s character and to put my trust in Him because He knows the correct path for me. As one of the co-founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Ellen G. White said,

We are rapidly nearing the final crisis in this world’s history, and it is important that we understand that the educational advantages offered by our schools are to be different from those offered by the schools of the world

(Counsels to Teachers, 56). My teachers didn’t just teach me about God but to show the Light to others.

This article won second place in the 2024 OUTLOOK essay competition for high school students.