After thirteen years at Faith Christian School, Madison Price shares how she has grown in faith, leadership, and confidence, surrounded by teachers and classmates who feel like family. She tells how FCS has taught her how to think critically and walk with God through every challenge, preparing her to study elementary education at Roanoke College and inspire children to love learning and see beauty in everything.

I have been at Faith Christian School since kindergarten, because at the time, there was no Pre-K. I came to FCS because my sister was already here. My plans after FCS are to study elementary education at Roanoke College with a possible minor in either early childhood development or psychology. My hope is to be a teacher who helps kids love learning and see beauty in everything.

Thirteen years at Faith Christian School have grown my faith and leadership. One of my earliest memories is the pumpkin patch with my senior buddy in kindergarten, showing me how special this community is. My classes challenged me, my teachers encouraged me, and my small class feels like family. Luke 23:34—I think of it as Jesus saying, “love them anyway.” It is a verse that FCS has helped me live out every day.

When I was in eighth grade, I was the girls’ varsity volleyball manager. I used to play basketball starting in fourth grade and ending in ninth grade, but I am currently the varsity girls’ basketball manager, which I started in my junior year.

The community at FCS is close; everyone cares for each other. I know my class, although small, feels like family. Christian classical education is made up of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Christian classical education doesn’t teach what to think but how to think. One thing I have learned about FCS over these many years is that teachers want you to succeed. This has helped me feel encouraged not to give up even when I am struggling, because my teachers are always willing to help.

I am currently in Ministerium, which is our high school service club. We recently went to the rescue mission and helped prepare food. It was an opportunity to help people who were in need.

Faith Christian School has prepared me to be able to write any paper, communicate well, and walk with God through every valley I might face. I hope that once I graduate from FCS, it stays part of who I am and that everything I have been taught stays somewhere in my brain.

My advice to younger kids is: do not let your struggles define you. Every day you will learn something new, and every day there might be a bump in the road, but you are stronger than the struggles—let God lead you through them.

I have had a lot of great memories here at FCS. My favorite lunch memory is playing games in advisory. A funny moment is when we were on the way to the senior retreat and we saw somebody, and I said I had never seen people before, when I meant to say I had never seen people over here before. My classmates would describe me as confident in myself. Once again, my favorite Bible verse is Luke 23:34: “Love them anyway.”