eca bulletin
Issue 36-17 April 21, 2017
National Honor Society Induction
PRAISE & PRAYER Praise
• For Erin Benfield, who recently accepted our offer to join our elementary team as the 4th grade teacher! Erin will be graduating this May with her degree in Elementary Education from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Be praying for Erin as she looks toward graduation, and transitions to Colombia. • For Paul Kwon and Grace Kim, who recently accepted our offer to join ECA’s team next year! Grace will be joining the middle school team teaching math, computers, and U.S. history. Paul will step into various administrative roles and maybe some PE classes. Paul and Grace are from Maryland and will be getting married in July prior to moving to Colombia. Be praying for them as they approach their wedding and make arrangements for their move to Colombia. • For Margarita Segura’s (Finance Assistant) graduation yesterday from Minuto de Dios University as Administradora Financiera. Congratulations, Margarita! • For the wonderful experiences the five mission teams had during Holy Week. All the teams returned without any difficulty, sickness, or accidents, and are eager to share what the Lord did among and through them next week during Missions Week. • For the 8th grade Family Integration Day on April 2. The 14 families who attended the Sunday service and lunch had a memorable time together. • We are always blessed when former teachers come back to visit. This past month we were excited to welcome Annie Johnson (5th/6th teacher), Carrie Bergmann (3rd grade), and Suzette Runyon (kindergarten and MS math/science). • That John Dougherty’s (MS Bible) mother is in rehab after her emergency hospital visit. We are thankful that John was able to accompany her for about 2 weeks during this health crisis. • That God has been bringing our staff team together for next school year. We are grateful that we have almost all of our positions filled! 2 ECA Bulletin
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Prayer • For the Lord to bring just the right people to fill our open positions for next year. Interested applicants should contact info@eca.edu. co. We are still looking for the following positions: - - - -
Art PE Director of Development Principal Assistants: Elementary and Secondary
• For Beth Afanador while she is in Haiti April 22-27, involved in an accreditation visit for our sister ACSI school there. Pray that she can be a blessing to this school as she joins a team of other international educators.
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UPCOMING EVENTS Missions Week: Loving Colombia We invite our entire community to participate in Missions Week next week by joining our students and staff in the auditorium any day at 1:30p to watch the videos, hear the testimonies, and celebrate what God did during the recent mission trips. Each day has a different team presenting: Mon 24 – Amazon Tue 25 – Guajira Wed 26 – Sierra Nevada Thu 27 – Chocó Fri 28 – Cumaral
Mon 24 – Amazon Tue 25 – Guajira
Wed 26 – Sierra
Thu 27 – Chocó
Fri 28 - Cumaral
The daily reports for each team can be found here, along with the videos after next week. Online Pre-Registration Deadline – April 24 Online pre-registration will only be open for a few more days, closing on Mon*, April 24. Any returning family who finishes online pre-registration after the deadline will need 4 ECA Bulletin
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to pay a fine of $50.000 for extra costs generated by the delay. To review the steps that were emailed to all parents,
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click this link. If you have any questions, write registrar@eca. edu.co. * Previously erroneously published as Tuesday
Next Parent Workshop Having Trouble Talking with Your Kids?
- In English with translation into Spanish Plan to come to the April Parent Workshop given by Zach Dalton, ECA Educational Counselor, this coming Tue or Wed, April 25 or 26 from 7:45a to 9:15. The goal
Staff Day
is for you to be able to have open and significant conversations with your children in safe, understanding, respectful, and loving ways. General Services & Maintenance Isabel Garzón Margoth Osma Martha Suárez Esther Tinoco Jhoan Sebastián Lamby
Office Staff Olga Altamar
Every year we celebrate our wonderful non-academic team – office staff and maintenance and cleaning crews – on Staff Day, which will be next Fri, April 28. If you would like to send a thank-you note to any of the staff listed, this is the time to do it.
Juan Carlos Castellanos Erika Castiblanco Juan Felipe Cerchiaro Jennifer Johnson Julio López Giomar Méndez Rose Mary Quiñonves Patricia Ramírez Danniela Rodríguez Luz Adriana Rojas Margarita Segura Ángela Tovar Claudia Valencia ECA Bulletin
Cashier Community Care Director Director’s Assistant Director of Operations Communication System Administrator Operations Assistant Receptionist Human Resources Technology/Media Accountant Finance Assistant Registrar Community Care Assistant Issue # 36-17
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UPCOMING EVENTS
S
PTF Class Rep Breakfast The PTF Steering Committee invites all PTF class representatives to a breakfast on Wed, May 3 at 7:30a to: • Give input to the PTF Steering committee and to new members • Help plan activities for the Opening Day Picnic in August • Get updated on ECA news. Mark your calendars, and RSVP to PTF@eca.edu.co. Then be sure to stop by the front office and scan your ECA ID card to record your attendance and get family points.
Día E – Day of Excellence As mandated by the Ministry of Education, ECA will be observing Day of Excellence activities on these dates: Wed, May 10
1:00p
Fri, May 12
8:00a10:00
Faculty/ Student Rep Meeting All-Parent Meeting in the Auditorium
Wed, May 10 will be a ½ day of school since during the afternoon we need to have our faculty and student reps review changes in our Índice Sintético de la Calidad Educativa (ISCE), based on our SABER results. On Fri, May 12, all parents are highly encouraged to give input about the
Star Days We have two Star Days coming up! Fri, May 5 No Theme Secondary/Staff Only Fri, May 19 Black & White Everyone! 6 ECA Bulletin
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direction we should go as a school to improve our students’ education based on the ISCE. Let’s make the most of this opportunity. If you are still lacking family points, you can earn 2 points per parent by attending this meeting.
To come out of uniform, be sure to pay a StuCo member $1.000 each day unless you bought a pass for the semester.
Spelling Bee The ECA Spelling Bees are less than a month away – on Fri, May 12! The reason we host this event annually is to help our students understand how they can glorify God with their intellect as well as with their attitudes and reactions to pressure and competition. These are the specific goals for the Spelling Bee: • Provide students with an academic challenge, as well as motivation to learn how to spell the 3,000 most frequently used words in the English language. • Create a safe environment in which students have to perform under pressure. • Give students an opportunity to show empathy to classmates and competitors. • Allow students to face their reactions to competition, both in winning and losing. Word lists were sent home with 1st–4th graders before spring break, and are also available on the ECA website. (School Life / Documents, Forms & Resources). We encourage parents to help their children study for the Spelling Bee, and also have conversations about the above topics as occasions arise. Attending the spelling bees is a way to support your child’s learning AND earn family points.
Family Mini-Retreat Parents, mark your calendars to attend this family miniretreat with your children on Sat, May 20 from 8:30a – 4:00p at ECA. Our purpose is for you to explore the heart of your family in an adventure you will never forget. Our speakers are the Pistulka family from Fundamentos para la Familia Internacional.
Teacher Day Celebration a ½ Day ECA will be celebrating Teacher Day on Friday, May 12, and students have a half day so the Board can treat our teachers to a special lunch and fun activities at Multiparque. All students must be picked up by 12:15p since teachers and teacher aides will be leaving, and supervision will not be available. Take advantage of this opportunity to bless your children’s teachers with a note of thanks and encouragement!
Music Recital Mark your calendars for Thu, May 18 from 7:45 to 8:45a. 1st–6th graders will present the music recital Music Around the World. We will be highlighting different musical styles and giving students the opportunity to perform and showcase the different skills they have learned this year.
Transforming Hearts, Blessing Generations
This mini-retreat is designed to develop relationships between parents and children. Each family will learn how to have quality family time, reduce conflict, and have healthy boundaries. We will work on reopening family dialog and creating paths for forgiveness and restoration to happen regularly at home. There is no cost for the retreat. Bring your Bible, pen, ECA Bulletin
and a notebook to take notes. Register here. There is not enough time to go off campus to buy lunch. The school cafeteria is making ajiaco santafereño, which will cost $12.000/person. If you want to order lunch, indicate how many lunches you plan to buy from the ECA cafeteria on the registration document. You are welcome to bring your own lunch.
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all-school news
National Honor Society Induction This week El Camino Academy recognized the following students for demonstrating exemplary qualities of Scholarship, Leadership, Service, and Character: 12th Grade Inductees Esteban Talero Juliana Moreno Tomás López
11th Grade Inductees Benjamin Castro David Izquierdo Laura Guzmán Torres Mateo Navarro Alejandro Cala These students were formally inducted into the National Honor Society on Thursday – congratulations to each one! They joined our current members from 12th grade (listed last bulletin) and members from our faculty and staff: Beth Afanador, Hannah Anderson, Teresa Brown, Zachary Dalton, John Dougherty, Allison Gómez, Amy Harris, Rachel Jeske, Jennifer Johnson, Angela Loudon, Glenda Moyer, Rachel Osborn, Elizabeth Parada, Michael Placeway, Jamie Placeway, Glorimar Quiñones, Sarah Trussell, Melody Vidal, and Katherine Zevallos. 8 ECA Bulletin
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Flag Raising
Progress Reports
This morning we had our monthly Flag Raising, and the following students were recognized for excelling in their initiative and involvement at social service outreaches: PK K 1st 2nd 3rd
4th 5th 6th 7th
Juan Marcos Sánchez Juan Eduardo Cañas Sarah Fenelon Gabriela Granados Matías Salazar Samara Muñoz Valentina Aristizabal Anamaría Bernhard Sara Juanita López Samuel Medina Nicolás Lugo María Paula Gelves Isabella Forero Valeria Berrios Ana María Díaz Valentina Cordero Juana Guzmán
8th 9th
10th
11th
12th
Paul Ko Sofia Hoyos Samuel Yepes Camila Ortiz Santiago Cárdenas Vanessa Vives Emilio López Camilo Lancheros Sofía López Angie Chaparro Alejandro Cala Sara Bartel Laura Guzmán N. Daniel Sieber Valentina Santiago
The last progress reports of the year were sent home yesterday, April 20. Take time to talk with your children about their grades, and help them set goals for the last stretch of the academic year. Celebrate together all the positive steps, and work together to create any plans for improvement.
Family Points
May 20 is the deadline to complete
family points for the year, to avoid paying a portion of the Complementary Parent Activities Fee. Below is the tally of families who have reached benchmarks in their progress – kudos to the majority who have earned all their points.
If you’re one of the 75 families still lacking points, plan to attend the Parent Workshop, the Mini-Retreat for Families, the Spelling Bee, the PTF parent rep breakfast, the music recital, and/or our Día E parent activity. ECA Bulletin
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all-school news Development Corner by Marvin Retzer
Building the Future . . .
Our Focus El Camino Academy is a Christ-centered educational community biblically equipping bilingual servantleaders to transform their world. Christian education involves the whole person: physical, mental, social, and spiritual. Thus, the focus of ECA is to provide a quality school setting that is distinctively Christian, academically challenging, and culturally relevant.
Distinctively Christian “We may indeed be approaching midnight. But if there is hope, it is to be found in a renewed and repentant people possessed of a moral vision informed by Scripture, respecting of tradition, and committed to the recovery of character.” - Charles Colson The foundation of El Camino Academy is the Word of God. Constant faithfulness to God´s inerrant Word is the bedrock on which ECA’s future depends. Biblical thinking begins with knowing the Bible. At ECA every subject and every activity is approached from the perspective of God´s Word. Herbert Schlossburg and Marvin Olasky, in their book Turning Point: A Christian Worldview Declaration write, “Unthoughtful attitudes involving such matters as government, education, culture, sexual morality, abortion, and so on suggest that Christians have not learned to make the right connections between piety and reason, between acknowledging the Lordship of Christ and working out the implications of God’s Word for all of life.” El Camino Academy has the unique opportunity 10 ECA Bulletin
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to devote time and ene young people to make th students to think and a men and women of ch repentant people poss informed by Scripture.”
Academically Cha
El Camino Academy grad and communities aroun fathers and mothers, doc and women, missionari occupations. ECA has pr which young people are serve God and their fello
Many students have e students have consist Colombian high schoo placing #1 in the nation total academics. They h well on the American AP
Challenging students t capable men and w faculty. These professio a tremendous quantity lives of the ECA student difference. This is what o had to say concerning h
“Providing quality teac priority for us, but dev more important. The EC discipleship, and service and precepts that are in
Excellence in academics combination!
Culturally Relevan
ergy to the task of teaching hose connections. By training act biblically, ECA develops haracter – “…a renewed and sessed of a moral vision,
NEEDED: Secondary Assistants and Director of Development
allenging
• Assistants: to provide full-time administrative support to the elementary and the high school principals starting in July 2017. Candidates need strong written and oral communication skills in English and Spanish, excellent technology and organizational skills, excellent relational abilities with children/teens and adults, as well as the ability to manage projects independently.
duates now serve in churches nd the world as dedicated ctors, teachers, businessmen ies, and in numerous other roved to be a worthy tool by e challenged, and respond, to ow man.
• Director of Development for the 2017-18 school year and beyond. Candidates must be college graduates with 3–5 years of experience in an education-related job, or experience in the fields of business or marketing as relating to nonprofit organizations. A master’s degree is preferred, along with training specifically oriented toward the development of private schools or nonprofit organizations.
excelled academically. ECA tently scored well in the ol exit exams, the SABER, in 2016 in English and #14 in have also consistently scored P, PSAT, and SAT exams.
Write human.resources@eca.edu.co for more information or to apply with a CV.
to excel are the godly and women that comprise our onal servants have invested of time and effort into the t body, and they are making a one alumnus faculty member his time at ECA:
ching and education was a veloping character was even CA traditions of mentorship, e reinforce Christian values ntegral to the faith.”
Family Memory Verses We continue memorizing verses about our theme for the year: Growing in Character. Our next verse to memorize these next 2 weeks is about productivity.
s and character – a winning
nt Read More ECA Bulletin
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Elementary Chapel 3rd Went to Acoinprev At the end of March Acoinprev 3rd graders visited El Camino. It was a great opportunity to share our school with others and make them feel welcome. Here is what Samara Muñoz, an ECA 3rd grader, shared about her experience: My favorite part was making new friends. That was my favorite part because you can learn about other people. We had different stations. The first one was with Juan Carlos. We talked about when Jesus was tempted in the desert. Next was soccer and making the salvation bracelets. Then, we practiced English and played math games. I made three new friends.
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Last chapel we participated in “Good Deeds Day” by serving our ECA community. Students picked up trash and wrote letters of gratitude to staff members in their small groups. We also were able to pray for and send off the five service teams who went all over Colombia.
This week in chapel students learned about trusting God. Among the Israelites who left Egypt during the Exodus, only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter the Promised Land, because they had trusted God. We can also trust God, even when we are scared, because His plans are always good.
Field Trip: 3rd/4th Our 3rd and 4th grade students watched a live performance of Cinderella this last Tuesday at Teatro La Castellana.
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Secondary Secret Church at ECA Tonight ECA is hosting Secret Church from 5:30p12:00 midnight. The theme is “Scripture and Authority in an Age of Skepticism.” There will be a time of worship at 3:30 led by our student worship team, followed by a pizza break, then we will begin Secret Church at 5:30. We’re looking forward to a great night! For more information, contact Robbie Becker go to www.radical.net/secret-church/simulcast.
Entrepreneurship Fair Many ECA High School students will be participating in the ECA Entrepreneurship Fair on Wed, April 26 to sell a variety of products to the ECA community. Students will not only be selling food, but they will also be offering a variety of different goods and items for purchase. The Fair will take place during MS, Elementary, and HS lunch times. Each student will have their own booth in which to display and sell their products. The purpose of this activity is to encourage entrepreneurship among our students and show the value of work, as well as to promote healthy competition. We encourage students to bring money to support this fair. We are looking forward to seeing the entrepreneurship skills of our students on display as they present their products. Jose Suárez Student Advocate/Personero
ECA Bulletin
T4:8 Disciple Retreat The T4:8 Disciple Retreat is coming up next weekend, Fri/ Sat, April 28-29 in Tenjo. Pray for the 24 students and 4 teachers who are going. It will be an intense 2 days of teaching, training, and experiencing what it means to follow Jesus and lead others.
May Service Trips in 9th - 11th Our 9th–11th graders will be going on different class service trips at the end of May. These are important times not only to serve together, but also to strengthen relationships, class dynamics, and leadership skills. Even if students have completed their required service hours, students are still expected to participate. There will be a minimal cost for these outings, to help cover food, lodging, and transportation, and parents will be getting more information by the end of April. Issue # 36-17
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Secondary University Reps Coming to ECA Service Outreach Opportunities The last opportunity this year for HS students to reach out at The Jungle, Nuevo Nacimiento, Findesin, and FormaVida is next weekend, Sat, April 29. Sign up at ECA.
Three university reps will be visiting ECA on Thu, May 11. The representatives come from Marist College (a private college in Poughkeepsie, NY - about an hour outside of New York City), Mt. Holyoke College (a women’s college located in South Hadley, Massachusetts) and Union College (a private, nondenominational liberal arts college in Schenectady, NY). We especially encourage 9th– 11th graders to take advantage of the opportunity to speak with these representatives.
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Financial Aid Forum
On Thu, April 6, representatives from Indiana, Tampa, and Eckerd Universities in the U.S. presented a forum on financial aid and scholarships for high school students considering attending college in the U.S. These were the highlights: • There are three main types of aid available: ○○ Merit/Achievement Scholarships – based strictly on grades (high GPA), SAT scores, TOEFL scores, etc. (These are the most common types of scholarships.) ○○ Talent-Based Scholarships – based on a specific artistic, musical, or athletic talent. ○○ Need-Based Scholarship – based on low-income, family-need. • While very few “full-ride” scholarships are given at U.S. universities, there are some private donors who are looking for applicants with very specific qualifications, and one of the best ways to find these scholarships is searching through Google. Be careful not to sign up for any scholarship agency that requires a fee to do research on scholarships on your behalf! • Most aid is given in the form of U.S. government loans. Some are “subsidized” (no interest accrues until after you have completed university) while others are “unsubsidized” (accruing interest from the time the loan is taken out). These loans are available to U.S. citizens. • Financial Aid is important; however, you should pursue it in this order: ○○ First, decide which colleges and/or universities you will apply to. ○○ Second, get your applications done early in your senior year. Most application processes open up in early August for the following school year. • Most schools will automatically consider you for scholarships and aid; you will not necessarily need to fill out a separate form or application. • The higher your GPA, the better your chance of getting a scholarship. ○○ Third, talk to the financial aid department of the schools from which you receive acceptance letters – learn about what scholarships are available and what the application process is. These individuals are the experts!
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