Faith Christian grads recall 'an amazing experience'

The 10 graduates of Faith Christian Academy proudly marched into the Faith Assembly of God Conference Center Saturday for their commencement ceremony.

With eight of them bound for college studies in the fall,  one graduate will join the Navy while another will travel to the Dominican Republic for field mission work.

“They are God-loving, passionate, highly intelligent and enthusiastic to change the world,” said Headmaster Alexander Averin of the Class of 2016. Three in the class have attended the school since pre-K. Its present enrollment is 250 students.

All students have had the opportunity to go on a mission trip, both locally and in the Dominican Republic. One student’s parents are physicians in that country and they allow students to stay in their home to participate in a medical mission.

“When they experience children in another country that do not even have shoes, it changes them,” Jacob said.

Aaron Maggiacomo started attending the school in pre-K. “It’s been an amazing experience and it’s going to be sad leaving here because it’s like family here,” he said. “I’m going on to Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida to study to be a nurse.

“Coming here and being surrounded by good people who genuinely cared about you helped to mentor me along the way and helped to influence my career choice," Maggiacomo said.

Valedictorian Austin Ackerbauer told his fellow graduates to avoid seeking praise and rather seek criticism.

“Some people are too caught up in looking for comments like ‘good job’ or ‘you did well’ but my philosophy is that I would rather be criticized and told how I can do something better,” he said. “How can you reach a different goal than the one you set and in the process supersede the prior goal?”

As parents and friends filed into the hall, Doreen Maggiacomo, mother of Aaron, shared her feelings about how Faith Christian Academy shaped her son and prepared him for the future.

“The teachers here are an echo of my voice and my Christian values,” she said. “We live in an area where there are very large schools but we got to live as though we resided in a small town."

Anthony Musso is a freelance writer. 

Graduation candidates

The following students are candidates for graduation from Faith Christian Academy.

Austin Ackerbauer, Wenkai Ai, Reilly Bramwell, Ana Canino, Monae James, Aaron Maggiacomo, Abigail Michos, Justice Slaughter, Aaron Wasvary, MingYang Zhang.