The Kindergarten students of Harvest Christian Academy had their shining moments during their graduation ceremony on Monday evening, May 20th in the Harvest Auditorium. The classes of Mrs. Schallhorn, Mrs. Lovmo, and Miss Bashore all sang together to begin the program and then each class shared what they had learned throughout the year with songs and poems. The program brought out many smiles and laughter from the hundreds of family and friends in attendance. After the program from each class, every student’s name was called as they marched out to their teacher to receive a shell lei and then stand in front of the crowd all by themselves to enjoy a personal few seconds of celebration as a K5 graduate. Afterwards, the students, teachers, and family members gathered in the Family Life Center for snacks, photos, and the giving of gifts. The K5 graduation is one of the highlights of the year for everyone involved and is one of the last stops on the schedule before the last day of school and the commencement ceremony for the Senior class of Harvest Christian Academy.

The last day of school is almost here and the excitement and anticipation is building all across the campus…and that’s just the teachers. The students are even more excited as they receive numerous academic awards just before school comes to a close for the summer. Starting on Monday with the K3 through K5 classes and continuing through Thursday with the 5th and 6th graders, principals and teachers present the students with a number of awards like Perfect Attendance, Bible Memory, A/B Honor Roll, A Honor Roll, Principal’s A Honor Roll (97% or above as final average), Overcomer Award, Bible Character Award, and Outstanding Student. Moms and dads, brothers and sisters, grandma and grandpa’s and many other family members beam with pride as their special student’s name is called and the teacher hands them their award. Afterwards, parents, students, and teachers all pose for pictures and many times the classes would enjoy a special time together admiring their awards and enjoy refreshments. The Jr. High and Sr. High students will have their opportunity to be rewarded for a job well done on Thursday, May 23rd.

The orchestra program of Harvest Christian Academy presented over an hour and a half of musical excellence during the final school concert of the 2012-2013 school year. Under the direction of Kelly Schlarb, students from elementary to high school were able to demonstrate the growth of their musical ability since the beginning of the school year. From the Beginning Strings and Intermediate Orchestras to the Advanced and Symphony Orchestras, parents and guests were able to enjoy a wide variety of music from all grade levels. Some of the highlights were the “The Carnival of the Animals” by the Advanced Orchestra students and “Go West” by the Symphony Orchestra plus many other wonderful selections through the evening.

Congratulations to the Harvest Christian Academy MathCounts team and Coach Matt Lewis for their victory in the Guam MathCounts competition that took place on Saturday, March 16th at the Guam Marriot Hotel. Harvest students took three of the top four slots and will make up the majority of the team that will represent Guam in the National MathCounts competition taking place in Washington D. C. in May. This is the fifth year in a row that Harvest Christian Academy claimed first place in the Guam chapter of MathCounts. The top three individualsfromHarvest will make up 75% of the Guam team are Dasson Tan – 1^st, Sai Gogineni – 2^nd, Harshitha Gogineni – 3^rd. The Guam team recently took part in a record breaking attempt at this year’s competition. Team coach Matt Lewis posted on Facebook: “I’m proud of my students at the National Mathcounts Competition at DC. We were able to be a part of setting a Guinness Record: the fastest human assembling of the 1st 25 rows of Pascal’s Triangle.”

In an effort to encourage recycling, a number of Guam phone book companies offer schools the chance to raise funds by competing in the annual Phonebook Roundup. During this year’s competition, the students of HCA worked tirelessly to collect used phonebooks for recycling at Guahan Waste Control. After finishing third in last year’s event, the students were motivated to do better and bring home a bigger prize. Students worked hard to make contacts and make pickup trips in order to accumulate as many books as possible. When the contest came to a close in April, HCA students had collected a little over 10,000 phone books to claim the first place prize. GTA, Guam Yellow Pages, and IT&E arrived on campus Friday morning to present a check for $3,000 to Senior adviser Holly Novak and representatives of the Class of 2013 (wearing attire for a special class project taking place throughout the day at HCA). Congratulations to the students who worked hard for the prize and for all the business, parents, and others who allowed the students to pick up their phonebooks for a good cause!