A 'DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE'

By Ed Mahon

In the beginning, there is paint-ball.

Grace Prep High School starts each school year with a three-day camp. During "Extreme Grace," students whitewater raft, play soccer blindfolded and pray with their teachers. They say it provides a unique bonding experience.

“It’s not often students get to shoot paintballs at their teacher,” said Patrick Sullivan, a math teacher at the Christian high school. He is allowed to shoot back.

Founded in 2004, Grace Prep is the newest high school in Centre County. It differs from a recently proposed Catholic high school not just in its religious affiliation, but also in its growth model.

At a public meeting last month, backers of St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy laid out their goal of opening the school in September 2010. They’re attempting to secure donations for a 45,000-square-foot-facility that they hope will host at least 400 students within its first four years.

Grace Prep rents space in Christ Community Church in College Township, and founder and headmaster Bob Gresh said he doesn’t want enrollment to grow much past 60.

“Not for the building’s sake, but just for our sake,” said Gresh. “It’s really fun. We fit in a charter bus and a van for our trips. And I just don’t think we would be doing what we wanted to do, if we couldn’t know every kid really individually.”

Gresh and other staff each have about six students who they meet with in discipleship groups, which students refer to as “d groups.” They usually meet once a week for fellowship and mentorship. Senior Jeremiah Baughman has been in Gresh’s discipleship group for the past four years.

“He’s helped me through the darker times in high school,” said Baughman.

Baughman said he used to have an overly high opinion of himself, and believes a larger high school, like State College Area, would have turned him into more of a loner.

“That would have just festered, and I would have collapsed socially. But here I was nurtured, and that superiority complex was destroyed,” said Baughman, who spent spring break last year on a service trip in Zambia, helping repair houses and talking to students about abstinence.

‘40 Points’

Grace Prep started with the “40 Points of Grace,” which Gresh sent to friends in an e-mail, after attending a State College Area High School orientation for his son. They were his vision for what a high school should be. Some samples:

“13. We believe that ‘Why do we have to learn this stuff?’ is a very good question.”

“19. We believe students should learn to avoid debt, pay cash and read the fine print.”

“20. We think they should understand God’s view of sex so they can anticipate the blessing.”

“29. We believe that on nice days it might be better to have class outside.”

Gresh sent those out in early 2004, and by that fall he had 32 ninth-through 11th-graders studying at State College Chinese Alliance Church. The enrollment has since grown to 60 students, and this summer they moved to Christ Community Church off of Benner Pike.

The Grace Prep staffers put their mark on the building, hanging up large pictures of students in the entranceway. They also received permission to paint part of the three classrooms red, blue, purple and other bright colors — a tradition that goes back to their previous building.

“It’s definitely easier to stay awake,” Baughman said.

Educators also use the building’s chapel and cafeteria for teaching space. The school has about a dozen teachers, many of whom work part time. The curriculum includes both evolution and creationism.

“We want them to hear both, and through their study of the Scriptures and study of science be able to form their own biblical worldview,” said principal and history teacher Dave Anderson. “So that’s what’s important to us, that they are forming their biblical worldview and we’re just not giving it to them.”

They’ve taken students to worship at a Hindu temple, a mosque and an Amish church. Students spent three days living with the separate Amish families, making butter, milking goats. Some of them wore the traditional clothes.

“It was different getting used to the quietness of their life. I mean it’s so peaceful,” said Olga Vovchenko, a junior who lives in Pleasant Gap. “You have no distractions. No Facebook. No cell phones.” “It was just nice,” she said.

Anderson and Gresh are working on establishing 40 competencies, things they want every Grace Prep graduate to be able to do. So far the list calls for students to know how to ballroom dance, tie a knot and change the oil in a car.

The unbreakable rule

Most classes have fewer than 20 students, but Anderson and Gresh work with the entire student body for the weekly global politics class.

Usually, they divide the students, but Gresh was absent at a recent lesson. So Anderson worked with the entire student body.

About 40 students took a test in the chapel, while 19 used the round tables in the cafeteria.

“This is exciting. You love tests,” Anderson, one of the teachers who students call by his first name, joked beforehand. “They test your knowledge. It’s like a game.”

Anderson led both groups in the day’s Scripture reading from the second chapter of Philippians. After the test, they regrouped in the chapel, put the chairs in a U shape and discussed President Barack Obama’s tax plan.

“Our teachers do a really good job of trying to get both worldviews in there,” senior Rachael Poss said afterward.

Poss plays basketball and soccer at Grace Prep. She turned to the school after struggling to make friends at Penns Valley Area High School. Junior Christy Sung had the same problem at a Bishop Guilfoyle High School in Altoona. She visited Grace Prep during a Wednesday chapel service.

“I came in, everyone loved me. It was a totally different experience. ... A lot, a lot of people reached out,” said Sung.

The school also accepts students who have been expelled from other schools.

“We do give kids a second chance. ... We believe those kids are best served by being with strong kids, strong swimmers,” said Gresh.

The school does have “one unbreakable rule,” however.

“You have to want to come to Grace Prep. You cannot be punished by coming to Grace Prep. It cannot be the only alternative to you,” said Gresh. “A parent can’t say my kid doesn’t want to come, but he’s gonna come.”

Sullivan, who’s been at Grace Prep for two years, taught at De Soto High School in Kansas for 10 years. In 1999, he received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. He moved to the area five years ago to earn a doctorate in mathematics education from Penn State.

“In Kansas I would have 125 kids in six different classes. I may have a personal relationship with a few of the kids, but nothing too deep,” Sullivan said. “Here, that’s part of what we do. I value my role as a mentor in their lives.”

The smaller school does provide limitations for its sports teams.

“I do not have a vision for a school with a state championship- winning sports team,” said Gresh. “Coaches don’t necessarily agree with that. But I want kids to play. ... I want to win, but not at all costs.”

The school has had notable competitive success in other areas. Its 2006-07 yearbook received a gold medal certificate from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Another school

The tuition for non-international students at Grace Prep is $6,750 for the school year. Over the past five years, the school has provided $500,000 in scholarships, or about 30 percent of its operating budget, according to Gresh.

The school receives funding from Pure Freedom, a ministry founded by Gresh and his wife, Dannah, that focuses on abstinence. Dannah Gresh, the author of “And the Bride Wore White” and co-author of “Lies Young Women Believe,” also teaches health at the high school.

Their son, Robby, graduated in 2008, part of the first Grace Prep class to go through all four years at the school. Of the 13 graduates, three were accepted into Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College.

Through Pure Freedom, Grace Prep students travel to Zambia in southern Africa every other year. Students raise funds to pay their own expenses, plus an additional $1,000 to support projects in the country where one in seven adults has HIV/AIDS, according to the latest United Nations estimates.

Last year, half of the about 20 students spent their days repairing a pig farm while the other half talked to students about abstinence. Baughman also helped construct a tin roof and raise the walls for one woman’s home.

“The main thing I’ll take away is being content with what I have,” said Baughman.

Grace Prep’s leadership also appears content with what they have, when it comes to facilities and enrollment. Gresh said maybe one day the school will partner with Christ Community Church to build an addition to the building. But he said he wouldn’t want the school to have its own building, unless it was entirely donated.

Gresh does see the possibility for expansion in other ways, however. He’d like to eventually have a sister school program in Africa.

“We could trade students around,” Gresh said.

Ed Mahon can be reached at 231-4619.